The Tower of the Sky
by carmelinagunn
Summary: Bella & Edward are students at Tower High, a place between worlds. Their attraction is immediate, intense & full of complications. Why does the pencil burn when they both touch it? A love/fantasy story. Cannon. AU. Non-vamp but also non-normal human!
1. Introductions

_Disclaimer: The story of Twilight is not (nor will it ever be) mine, and I know it._

_But my imagination and the insane notion that I should start another story is, however, all mine to claim... _

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**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Introductions**_

**Chapter 1 - The Preface**

**"The Inspiration"**

_-*- Pablo Neruda's Love Sonnett XXIV -*-_

Love, love, towards the tower of the sky, the clouds

climbed like triumphant washerwomen

and everything burned in blue, everything a star:

the sea, the ship, the day were banished together.

Come see the cherry trees of a water constellation

and the round key of the rapid universe,

come touch the fire of instantaneous blue,

come before its petals are consumed.

Nothing here but light, quantities, clusters,

space opened by the virtues of the wind

until it sheds the last secrets of the foam.

And amidst so many sky-blues, submerged,

our eyes are lost barely guessing

the powers of the air, the underwater keys.

**Chapter 1 - Part 1**

**"The Tower"**

_-*- The humble telling of a tale from Me to you, Dear Reader -*-_

Look, if you will, towards the sky.

Trust Me, please, to guide you through this tale. I promise to hold your hand, but not too tightly, for I know the joy of wandering through a story unrestrained.

Allow yourself to give Me your mind for the pieces of time we will spend together, here, in the world of The Tower. We can meet such beautiful Characters and share with them the adventures that lay ahead. We can unravel their secrets and root for their happy endings. We will have so many opportunities to praise them and condemn them for their attempts to be their best - oh, Reader!

We have so much to share if you will but follow my gaze through the clouds I ask you to allow yourself to see...

Yes, look, if you will, towards the sky.

Reader, if you would just look past the distant mountains your mind's eye is beginning to form and up, up a bit higher through the clouds, just there, you can see it standing tall.

The Tower of the Sky.

It's got a much larger presence than even the mighty rocky structures surrounding it, though notice with Me how they are more boastful.

Of course The Tower's nature is not to boast. Oh no.

It's nature is subtle teaching. And adventure. And spirit. And youth. And anomaly.

This destination, as each and every_ One_ will hopefully come to learn, is not about the end result but more so about the journey to get there.

So this structure moves. Oh yes, it moves.

Come, take time from your life and chase it with Me, with Us - the Characters - and see what a journey we can all have together!

Please, chase it with Us, Reader.

It will evade your advances for a time.

Until you remember what you were supposed to be.

Until you help another remember.

Until the time has come for you to fly.

**Chapter 1 - Part 2**

**"The Swan"**

_-*- An excerpt from the personal journal of Isabella Swan -*-_

_(Do not think badly of us, Reader, for this slight invasion of privacy. Surely she would not mind us taking just a peek, just for a moment. We are dropping in on her life unannounced, and it seems we are a bit late. We have missed the beginning scene, the first moment her life has really begun to change - but worry not, Dear Reader! I promise you we will not miss anything else, and I promise you that we can catch up quite quickly, for not even our dear Characters know what has begun yet. Yes, our indroductions are just beginning. The rest will unfold right before our eyes. Lean with me now, just right here over her shoulder. As I said, she does not know we are here but I do believe she would not mind, terribly. She's a rather polite and accessible young woman, normally. Though not all that came across her today would quite agree...)_

Dearest Journal,

The long hallways of Tower High intimidated me today, I must admit, odd as that is.

I haven't felt intimidated since I was about eleven years old and started coming into my _S__elf. _My true self. My unafraid self.

I will not equate my intimidation to exact fear, though. The large stones of the new school and the cold looks of the older students didn't scare me. I've just never experienced that specific kind of submittance before. The kind where you are the new, young kid on the "playground" and are reduced to confused galnces and hesitant questions about directions.

As I said, it was odd. I've never wandered a hall aimlessly before or stopped a stranger for advice on the quickest way to my next destination. As you know, I grew up Forks, Washington and have attended the same exact school with the same exact children my entire childhood. Newness is new to me, though I knew this was coming for some time now.

The most disconcerting experience I had today was the only shock of real fear I felt, towards the end of my school day. It's the only ounce of fear I've ever felt in the relevant, more adult portion of my entire eighteen years, actually. It occurred when I looked into the piercing green eyes of the boy who sits isolated at the far back desk in sixth period.

I'm told his name is Edward Anthony.

I was only one desk away from him, hiding in the back as well, but not in the same isolation seeing as I was sitting beside the lovely blonde boy with all the manners. Our professor was not in today so for all of sixth hour my attention was split evenly between the two boys, though I hope if I was judged on outward appearance only one of them seemed to hold my attention. I hope that to the outward eye I appreared to only have one sided attention; that would be the side that laughed and smiled demurely with my deskmate. In truth I had another side, kept undercover. It worked at maintaining a sharp eye on the only boy in the entire room who sat alone and who doesn't seem to understand that it's terribly and blatantly rude to stare.

His unfaltering gaze sent a chill of fright through me and I don't know why. But I want to find out.

I bet he's a Toucher. He's pretty enough to be one.

But enough of that nonsense for now. Tomorrow is a new day to understand and overcome all of this, and that's what I am best at. Now that I know where I'm going I won't have to wander the halls with that ridiculous map in hand. Now that I know of this Edward's existence I won't freeze in fear under his relentless stare. All I will have to worry about is making the Journey without distraction.

That's all any of us are here for anyway.

In the end we'll all be climbing The Tower of the Sky as only one thought pushes through all of our separate minds: "Maybe from here I'll finally fly."

**Chapter 1 - Part 3**

**"The Wealthy Guardian"**

_-*- A brief and privileged glimpse inside the guarded thoughts of Edward Anthony -*-_

Edward paces his dorm late at night, brazenly pushing his mind too roughly through the halls beyond his door.

_What is he even searching for?_

He did not exactly know, Dear Reader. Not in the part of him that will admit things with pride.

Inside, however, in the small pocket he's hidden in a secret space that he keeps tucked safely under every other thought in his consciousness, he recognizes his actions for what they are.

Desperate. Invasive. Hasty. Audacious.

Highly uncharacteristic of such a controlled young man.

He cannot speak for himself, for he is also somewhat unaware of our intruding eyes, but_ I_ can account for him here, Reader.

He is not normally like this. Not normally pacing between walls or pulling at his riot of auburn hair like the epitome of frustration. I will not mislead you into thinking he is a gentle, placid Character, either, Reader. I would not do that to you. It's just that we would usually find him in a much quieter, calm frenzy, writing music or flavored words in an well practiced effort of privately working out what his mind had unwantingly picked up throughout the day. But I've already told you that our entrance into this story is a bit delayed, so it's no surprise we find him in this uneven, out of character state.

"Useless," he mutters outloud to himself, finally giving up on the pacing and finding temporary, artificial rest by sitting on the end of his bed.

He is feeling equal parts dissatisfaction at both his lack of control and the lack of information this slip in his normally infallible control has earned him.

We watch silently, perhaps with developing traces of pity at his obvious discontent, as he attempts to turn his mind elsewhere.

He is in new surroundings tonight, this you should know. It is adding to his fidgeting and unrest.

He likes his new dorm room, this much I have gathered from stealing glances at his written thoughts while he scrawled swiftly in his journal just this morning. It's a good deal larger than the room he was in last term, and it's private.

_"These must be the perks of waiting out The List_," he thinks to himself as he silently approves of the rugs and the lamps, and the pillows, and other small details of the room he failed to notice earlier.

The bond he and Emmett formed as room mates over the last few months is unmatchable and appreciated by both young men, but Edward can't find himself getting too upset about the new reality of being separated from his friend by a wall instead of a mere five feet between beds. As an only child who then became an entitled orphan he's grown accustomed to private, selfish space.

As he perches on the end of his bed he pulls his mind back completely into himself and finally drowns out all of the neighboring student's thoughts that he'd just been barreling through moments ago. He does not like this action of retreat no matter if it is the more nobel thing to do. For you will soon see, Dear Reader, that our Edward is a stubborn boy and this, to him and on this night, is the equivalent of admitting defeat.

It did not do him any good to be pushing his unseen power through the helpless minds of his peers, though, and he does not enjoy wasting time, either.

No one was thinking of _her_ or anything to do with _her_, so they were all now useless to him.

Not even the blonde that had been sitting beside her in sixth had had _her_ on his mind. Edward did not know the blonde boy's name; he'd been so entirely distracted with listening to Isabella (or rather, _attempting_ to listen to her) the whole time they were trapped in the classroom that he'd completely missed any thoughts concerning the other man's name.

But there'd been nothing there in_ her_ head.

Not one thing.

It was frightening.

Every other person in Edward's life had unknowingly forced their thoughts on him daily. Relentlessly.

He couldn't blame them for it any more than he could blame himself for hearing them, he knows that of course, but rationale leaves our poor, troubled boy every once in a while and he gets tired of being comfortable with is power. He craves silence.

At least, he used to think he did.

Because, as you see here - look with me now and _really_ see it on his face-

He's bewildered. And troubled. And altogether unhappy.

Because _she_ was _blank_.

And that made _her _very, very frightening.

If not the slightest big intriguing...

And let's look now, Dear Reader, at these two lives in parallel. We have the advantage of pulling back and watching them both together at this moment; the two who know not what is to come. We can watch for as long as we want as these two opposing scenes unfold:

As Isabella lays down her pen and closes the cover of her "Dearest Journal", deciding to rest and to forget her troubles for the night, our Edward stays unchangingly seated on the end of his bed in a state of high unsatisfaction.

While she lays her head down to sleep and subconsciously untucks all of the musings of her day, the ones she wouldn't ever think to write down (indeed they are the deeper thoughts of _him_ that plague her mind), _he_ remains awake and keeps everything safely, stupidly tucked.

As she attempts to forget him in her slumber he, in his conscious waking, vows_ never _to forget _her_ or the fact that he would probably be kept awake by thoughts of her even if he had managed to find her mind's every seceret, silly syllable the instant he first laid eyes on her.

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**You guys, I know that this is crazy. I have 2 other stories incomplete right now, I know. But I'm stuggling with motivation and this was begging to come out and it's making my imagination feel good again. **

**B2T and PDA are NOT getting neglected! Now that I've got this started I've actually been able to revisit and begin the next chapters on both of those stories, so this is a good thing, I promise :)**

**Please send me your thoughts on this new stuff. And if you know me, trust me to keep all 3 going. I fall in love with my characters and I will never abandon any of them, even if it takes me a bit of time to progress their stories. **

**LOVE YOUS!**

**-Car**


	2. Manners

**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Manners**_

**Chapter 2 - Part 1**

**"The Fallen"**

_-*- Our first look at a classroom left unto itself -*-_

Isabella Swan walks confidently down the hallways of Tower High with her head held up and her steps landing in the places already paved for her by forces unknown.

We have found her, Reader, here. She is on her way to her sixth hour class, and we can see what she cannot.

An invisible path has already been drawn for her but she does not have the right sort of eyes to see it. We are separated enough from this world to know some of it's secrets, yet we are not so disconnected as to be out of reach of wonderding why they exist.

Her footfalls match the path that's already been drawn for her. So we watch her now, walking steadily down the stone hallway she is so proud to be familiar with on this, the second day of her attendance here. She turns a corner and knows she is getting rather close to her destination and - don't look away, Reader! Do not choose this to be the moment you rest your eyes or bend to tie your shoe - as her hidden nerves start to temble at the thought of what steady stare awaits her inside of the classroom she trips and sends her notebook flying, flying a few feet away onto the ground below.

This, of course, has sent her pencil dancing across the stone floor as well, for she is a prepared young woman who always keeps a writing utencil in the metal spiral of her notebook just in case should she be stricken with anything of importance that she should wish to record throughout her day.

And this, Dear Reader, this is what I was so sure you wouldn't want to miss:

As she bends to retrieve her fallen notebook another hand shoots out to return to her the pencil. A pale hand with long fingers and a lonley demeanor.

**Chapter 2 - Part 2 - BPOV**

_-*- You escape My clutches briefly, for a first hand look, you Lucky Reader -*-_

I reached out for the pencil, somewhat mesmerized by the long fingers that were now wrapped around.

I didn't look into the face of my pencil's rescuer.

I may not be afriad of anything anymore, but I still feel embarrassment. And my new found clumsiness was not appealing to me in the slightest.

As my hand reached out to grab back my pencil the hand holding it pulled back at a speed that was just fast enough to seem like it was too fast.

That made me look up.

And there _he_ was.

Edward.

Pulling back_ my_ pencil into himself and staring at me with his wide, blunt eyes.

Never in my First Life in Forks had I encountered such a person as this Edward.

Of course, I arrived at Tower High with large expectations of remarkable people. Ever since I was eleven years old I'd heard countless stories of the worthy beings that walked these hallways every day, and that in a few short years I would become one myself.

Now that I was finally here, however, I found next to none of them even remotely exciting or original or really anything resembling the reputation preceeding them.

They all walked with an air of authority, I'll give them that. I suppose to some people that is enough to give praise for.

To some people a quick step and a lifted chin change the world. These simple, foolish details are all that certain innocent bystanders need to see before they throw the label "remarkable" onto another.

Most of the every day "remarkables" do not even make it to the entrance of Tower High, though.

The home of the true Remarkables.

Us.

This Edward, though... he _was_ remarkable.

Well, his outside was, at least.

Sharp angles shaped his face and they were shielded and softened just enough by his smooth skin. I cannot describe his hair accurately. It was a red or a brown or a golden color all at once and it reached out in different directions, as if wanting freedom. His ever-staring eyes were brighter green than they had seemed to me at yesterday when I first found them studying me in class. And he was so terribly tall.

I stood there, silent with my hand held out impatiently.

He was a true Remarkable, yes.

But he still had _my_ pencil.

I glanced down to where he held it in a tight fist pressed against his chest. His mouth was resting in the most tempting unsatisfied line that I'd ever seen.

I tilted my head to the side in a gesture that I hoped said, "_I want my pencil back _now_, you pretty, insufferable, Remarkable, ass hole_," and was rewarded with his too-fast reflexes snapping into action once again.

His penciled hand came towards mine and at the last second he released the bulk of it from his grip, leaving only the lead end of it grasped in his fingers. I reached out and pinched the eraser between my thumb and forefinger, and the moment my skin touched the small object I gasped.

I may not by afraid of nearly anything, but I still feel surprise.

The pencil was hot.

Not warm as if I'd left it in the sun for a few hours too long. It was not any temperature wood normally is.

It was very, very _hot_.

And then the instant his fingers released his end of the pencil it was not.

It still burned with a humming warmth but the intense heat had fled.

He turned on his heel and stalked past me into the classroom very soon after the pencil was completely in my clutches once again.

The whole event probably took about 5 seconds but I recount it with much detail and have probably misled my memory into making it feel like more.

It was quick and odd and almost horrible because the whole time his beautiful face looked hurt.

I walked into sixth with discomfort and unhappiness.

This is how I felt yesterday wandering the halls in this new foreign, lost manner. I wanted to shed today of that feeling.

Yet here was this Edward cloaking me in it with one fragment of an interaction.

I did not make any effort to look at where I knew he'd be when I entered the classroom, but I could feel him on the other side of my desk, sitting alone even without sparing him a glance.

I studied the details of my wood-top desk and fought the urge to turn and demand a word from him.

Why was he staring? Why was the pencil hot? Why was I so afraid of talking to him before he said anything to me, when I'm not afraid of anything?

"Bella! I trust your day is treating you the way you deserve to be treated."

I smiled and looked up at the sound of an already familiar, already comforting voice, adoring the good timing of the boy who I shared a desk with and whom I could give my attention to with no hesistation or confusion.

"I'm afraid not, Carlisle."

"And why not? Did you get lost again?"

"I did _not _get lost yesterday! It's a big school. There are a lot of different ways to reach one destination."

"Yes. But there are no passageways from the Viewing Tower to here, the Lecturn Tower. So..."

I laughed under my breath and shook my head.

"Fine. I _might_ have _almost_ been lost yesterday when I ended up in the wrong tower. Thank you for calling me out. It feels great. You are such a gentleman."

"Hey, I'm only making my most valiant attempt at keeping you an honest lady."

He winked at me and it was sweet. I felt good inside when I spoke to Carlisle, and it'd only been two days that I'd known of him.

"It looks as if our professor is out again today," he sighed when I had no return for his statement outside of a smile.

"Indeed. I hope they let us go home this time."

"Hmm. Do you have a lot to do? Are you very busy with settling yourself in here?"

"No. I'm just uncomfortable. In here. In this room. With nothing real to do."

I tried to choose my words carefully. I could tell Carlisle the truth, I was sure of it, but I did not need Edward knowing what he did to me. Or how afraid of it I was. Or how badly I wanted to know if his skin was as hot as the pencil.

And I had a feeling that _he_ was listening to our words. So I chose them carefully.

"Well, I-"

Just then the doors to the classroom jumped open and a man walked through, rushing to the podium at the front of the classroom.

The room was silent by the time he reached his destination. He did not take any sort of moment to look around the room and smile or greet us as if we were humans with minds that wonder about mysterious appearances of strange men. He just began to speak.

"I am Caius. I am here on your professor's behalf. He cannot make it into class at this time, but he asked me to assure you that he will be back as soon as he can. While I will be sitting in with you during sixth hour until his return, I am _not_ a substitute teacher. For those of you who are new to our school, you need to rid yourself of how you've operated in your previous learning establishments. Remarkables do not need to be babysat, nor do they act out when faced with a lack of authority. Your Remarkability is your authority now, at all times."

His words were clipped and impersonal. His tone was brief and chilled. He paused now to assess the room and as his gaze passed over me I _felt_ it. The Remarkability he held that was matured and more developed than mine, or Carlisle's, or Remarkable Edward's, or any other student in the the room with us.

"Now, what you are to work on today is your story. Tell us why you are here. We do not care how long the essay is or which format your write it in. Be yourself and be honest. Your professor will be reading and filing these essays immediately upon his return. Of course my collegues and I have access to every single one of your histories already. But we've found that hearing your story from your own perspective is far more meaningful that the resources we have at our disposal. Most importantly we need you to disclose your belief on your placement within The List. Are you worthy? A lot of that can be told from your own discernment of your talents. Begin."

I shot a glance at Carlisle who smiled encouragingly back then swiftly turned to his paper. It was understood that we weren't to talk. We'd been instructed our task.

_Begin_.

**Chapter 2 - Part 3**

**"The Sneaks"**

_-*- Let me, let me show the Noble Pixie and the Treasurer -*-_

I feel young again.

Don't you, Reader?

Follow me down this pathway, across the back walls of Tower High, through the thick trees and bright wild flowers and strips of sunlight fighting through the canopy above.

Come with me as we follow our Sneaks on their frolic to brief freedom.

Our footsteps are unnoticed and mirthful as we race after these two and their shadows in thier afternoon light.

One is rather short and full of life. Her hair is dark and wild, yet beautifully tamed under her hand. It is as unique as her.

She is a sprite. She is a giggle. She is the _ding!_ of a bell and the soft rainbow coloring on the skin of a bubble.

She is his life.

He is a twist. He is the smell of whiskey. He is the soil in the earth and the worn out patches of your favorite pieces of clothing, the ones that prove your love for the article.

He is her forever.

They are hand in hand running through the dirt with smiles and hopes dressing them. They leave their thoughts and rules and rights and wrongs behind in the dust clouds their feet bring to life.

Oh, Reader, have you ever seen such a lovely sun-streaked sight?!

Her borwn leather boots kick up the dirt of the forest as her tiny steps fall over and over again. Her floral pearl snap button down shirt is the only thing on her not made of skin or muscle that keeps his heart from touching hers.

He has plans to release her from it in a selfish an attempt to push them together anyway. Yes, soon, his latest plans for this will come to be for they are her plans as well.

But we will be long gone before then, Reader, I promise you. We are forming a rather naughty habit of invading our Character's privacy, I know, but we'd never cross that line. Some things we keep beyond curtains and doors and the eyes of a visitor because they are meant for two and no more than that.

Now, however, we are free to watch them run.

His boots match hers, yet they are far more worn and have many more stories to tell.

He is a Traveler as much as he is a Gateway and he's well practiced.

His clothes do not speak of his Remarkability, but he's never been _that_ kind of Remarkable, Reader, so we should never expect him to wear the high collars or sharp creases of Caius or the like.

Let's just skip a little bit closer and study his wear, shall we?

Keeping our pace up, we circle them until we have a better view of him and we can see, just there, the small rips and holes in his black jeans. See, also, just above the flask in his back pocket, the ripped flannel of his shirt.

I wonder if you know that these are the things that nearly make him an outcast in his own home, the Tower High?

You don't?

Oh, Reader, it's a truth and a tragedy.

Many of our Remarkables at the school will not spare young Jasper a second glance because of these marks of character in his clothing. This is a shame, for the marks in his soul are worth getting to know. He has been calling Tower High his home for a whole hand's count of years now and he has proven himself in his talents over and over in many ways. He is a Gateway of the most unique nature. Aro sees this and keeps him because of it, even if too many believe our new friend should be stripped of his attempt at The List.

But Jasper's spirit fights the destiny others have always tried to force on him.

He wants to be free. He wants to sneak more often. He wants her so badly it hurts him.

He strives to be on The List, but not without her and not without being himself. His true _Self_.

As we've been studying them they've been slowing and so shall we now so as not to allow ourselves to go bounding into the forest without purpose or pleasure. Our steps are falling with less urgency because we can see their destination now - and isn't it lovely? It is wide open to the sun. Tall grass falls to short moss around the stream that runs through this natural opening in the woods. Flowers live here in colonies, and it's not hard to see why.

Let's fall back once again, in the special way only we can, so that we may see _it all_.

Our Sneaks, they stop in the middle of the meadow and stare. Simply at each other for that is what they must sneak away to do.

He pulls her closer to him and whispers before sneaking a kiss, "_Alice_".

Her laugh is light and right at home hitting his ears as she pulls away and stares into him once again.

And we can see in her eyes that this is her way of life. She will sneak with him forever if it means feeling like this.

Farther away, high up in the Lecturn Tower, two desk mates in the back of a quiet classroom sit side by side in pleasant company, attempting to write of their worth to The Tower. They have no idea of the goings on in the meadow, of course, for they are not Us.

Instead Carlisle and Bella lean over their papers in silent companionship, each one unfocused and deciding to wait until they can write their stories out in private.

Slyly (though Caius is hardly there to babysit and would not bat an eyelash had he not been out-slyed) Carlisle slides a piece of paper towards Bella.

She glances at it, happy for a distraction from the feeling of slow burning that's currently pushing itself into the place she thinks _his_ eyes are resting on the side of her head.

But what she finds only increases the feeling, and her hopes of distraction _poof_ into nothing.

**Chapter 2 - Part 4**

**"The Note"**

_Edward is staring at you again_

**_Yes, I know. I can feel it. _**

_Doesn't it bother you?_

**_It's bad manners to stare. Don't tell me that the most well-mannered boy in the world doesn't know THAT._**

_Of course I know it. Don't let it bother you if you don't want it to. _

**_I'm trying. _**

_So... it is bothering you?_

**_Yes. But not for the reasons it should. _**

_I wasn't aware such things were outlined. _

**_You know what I mean, Carlisle. It does not bother me because it's rude or wrong to stare. Though both of those things are true. _**

_What are your reasons then, my dear?_

**_He scares me. _**

_Has he done something to you?_

**_Besides staring relentlessly and burning me with my own pencil, no, he has not. _**

_Burned? Bella, if he's hurt you then you need to report it._

**_No, no. It's not what it sounds like. Hold on..._**

_Why have you pushed your pencil off your desk? _

**_Touch it. _**

_I'm sorry, I don't understand. _

**_There. Is the pencil hot to you? Is it warm at all?_**

_No..._

**_Ok. This is even more odd than I thought. I dropped my pencil before class, in the hallway. Edward picked it up for me then, just as I knew he would just now if I knocked it onto the floor next to his desk. Each time in the moment that both of us had our hands on the pecnil as he passed it back to me the pencil grew fire hot. When he releases it the burn fades, but not completely. I thought you'd be able to feel it too... I guess not. _**

_This means something. Have you asked him about it?_

**_No. That's the other thing... I'm to afraid to talk to him. _**

_I thought you don't fear anything. _

**_Remember how we discussed exceptions yesterday? Esme is yours. Edward, apparently, is mine. At least that's what I'm starting to think._**

_This is a big deal. _

**_It doesn't have to be. _**

_Just because you don't want it to be, that doesn't mean it isn't. Talk to him. _

**_I can't. I will. Maybe. _**

_Physical, tangible connections and reactions are important for us to explore, remember. Just, be careful. I've heard so much about Edward... and I'd never judge him from rumors alone, but there is a rather large consensus regarding his unpleasantness. _

**_Yes, thank you. You are easing my apprehension over speaking to him at an astoundingly fast pace..._**

_I apologize. It will be fine if you speak to him, even if he is intolerable. You have me on your side, remember. _

**_Pshh. I'm a Shield. I do not need a Toucher ;)_**

_Hmm. We shall see._

**Chapter 2 - Part 5**

**"The Stronghold"**

Again, we find our Edward pacing his room. And I'm beginning to fear that his actions will break your trust in me, Reader. He is so far gone from the collected young man I knew him to be before I invited you into this story. He is this new, movable, raging force.

And it is quite exciting, I must admit.

He turns over the words in his mind again and again, pulling them forward in front of all the other voices he cannot escape.

_The pencil burned her, too. _

The most infuriating thing for him, perhaps, is not that he cannot understand what the burning means (though that is currently at the top of his frustrations), but rather that Carlisle is already so secure in _her_ life.

Surely he doesn't burn her. Not through the wood of the desk they share or the paper they passed relentlessly back and forth that Edward got to see through Carlisle's mind.

_And who is this Esme, and does Emmett know that Bella is also a Shield, and why can't he _hear_ her, and how the hell does he operate this damn phone?_

Poor Edward.

Here we are again, Reader, watching him suffer. He is in such a state of uproar he cannot even manage to make a simple in-house phone call to his only friend.

Luckily for him (and, dare I say, for Us, because Emmett is such fun) the intended recipient of his failed attempt at a simple phone call is just walking in.

"You're slouching, Eddie. What has the world done to wrong you now?"

Edward is unamused by his large friend's joke. We know enough about him to know that this is because it is too close to the truth. You will find this a lot. Yes, you will see this quality in Emmett more than most who know him; his ability to be so honest it feels absurd to those receiving his truth.

Watch the bed sink even lower as the massive frame of our newest acquaintance takes a toll on the springs.

"Isabella Swan. What do you know of her?"

"Swan? Huh. Oh, she's that little thing that just started... let's see. I know she's pretty. She's small. Brown hair. Wasn't afraid to sit next to me on the first day, which is saying a lot!"

Emmett laughs, loud and wonderfully, but Edward does not. He smiles at his friend, humoring his humor, but it's all an act.

This is serious business. Emmett has answers but never likes to reveal them in the way Edward wishes for them to be revealed. It is one of the hitches in their frienhsip, yet you will come to find it also to be the very oil that loosens the joints that hold them together.

"Right. She's a Shield. What kind?"

"Well, mind. I mean, c'mon. How would she be a physical Shield, Edward? She's no bigger than my thumb."

"She's been blocking me from her mind. I can't hear her, at all. It's infuriating."

"I thought you hated being in people's heads all the time, dude."

"It's different with her. What is it that she doesn't want me to hear? I find it highly suspicious-"

"Wait, you think she's doing it intentionally?"

"Of course. We are not supposed to block each other here, there's no reason. We pose no threat to each other. I very nearly confronted her today to find out what I've done to earn her distrust."

"You're really heated up over this."

"I just don't understand what she has against me this early."

"Nah. You're just upset that there's one beautiful girl in the world that isn't throwing herself at your feet."

"Emmett, be serious."

"I am being serious. She's gorgeous and you know it."

"I never denied your opinion of what she looks like-"

"Holy crap you think she's pretty and it's making you nervous to talk to her!"

"That's absurd. Of course not. No. There's more... she... when she dropped her pencil today I picked it up for her-"

"Aw, Prince Charming."

"Emmett, stop, this is important. It burned."

"What? Performing a selfless act of kindness? It's ok, Eddie, I'm sure you'll never be compelled to help a damsel in distress ever again-"

"The pencil, you moron. The pencil turned hot when both of our hands were on it."

"That is not normal, bro."

"That's my point. There's something going on with her and she most definitely does not want me knowing what it is. She's blocking me and burning me and I cannot sit still because I cannot figure it out!"

"Why don't you just ask her?"

"I'm sure that would go over well. You know me and my dazzling 'people' skills. _'Oh, hello Miss Swan, my name is Edward. I don't know if you've noticed, but something rather odd is going on between us. There was that little ordeal with the pencil, twice, and then this annoying habit you seem to have of blocking me from your thoughts. I want to scoop my eyeballs out due to the frustration this is causing me, so I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee and explain what the hell you're up to. Does that sound all right to you?'_ I don't think so."

"You know, I really love it when you get melodramatic."

"I'm being honest. Emmett, I haven't been close to anyone in literally years. You are the closest thing I've had to family or a friend since I was eleven-"

"Hey - I _am_ your family. And your friend. We've been over this, you're stuck with me."

"Thank you, I do know that. But you are different. You are not a mystery, or a threat, or-"

"Or a pretty girl?"

"I haven't touched anyone in ten years, or even wanted to, Emmett. I can't do this. I'm afraid of what it will do to me."

"I know. I'm not suggesting you body slam her, though. I just think it'd do you some good to strike up a conversation. Give her a chance to be a decent human being before your turn her into a malicious she-devil with a destructive Edward-demolishing secret."

"Ok, yes. You're right. God, I really, really hate when you are right."

"Ha! Don't I know it."

"It's not going to be too soon that it happens though..."

"Of course not. You don't work like that."

"Right. Well, now that we've sort of settled that... would you like to get dinner in the hall? I haven't eaten since breakfast."

"Sorry, can't. I'm going into town with Carlisle."

"Again?"

"Yeah, you know. We, uh, like the city life. You could come."

"No, no. You go have fun with the Toucher."

"You say that like it's a bad thing. You don't even know the guy, Eddie."

"Well, it's not like I can relate to any of the Touchers very easily... Anyway, he sits next to Bella in sixth. He's already very protective of her and his thoughts are so pure and accessibly. I just... it seems odd to me."

"Oh. That's just him. And you're just jealous. Nothing to worry about. I'm going to go now. You ok?"

"I'm not jealous. And of course I'm ok. I'm always ok."

"You sure?"

"Emmett, I'm not a child and I've eaten dinner alone an uncountable number of times. I'm fine. Go."

"Ok. But we're dinging together tomorrow for lunch, ok?"

"Ok."

"I'm really leaving now..."

"Please do..."

"Don't cry over my absence!"

"Good bye, Emmett."

"Night, Eddie. See ya tomorrow."

Edward closes the door and sighs to himself.

He tries very hard to be strong, Reader. And he is. Oh, he is.

But even the strongest break under enough pressure. He has not reached that point yet, do not worry for him so very much that you cannot be excited for what is to come.

He has not felt his limits yet. He has not been tested to his fullest so he thinks that this may be the edge.

But we do not need to worry about him nearly as much as his dear friend Emmett is. Look here, see Emmett taking his large strides down the dormatory hallway and see that they are a little less carefree than usual because of his worry. He will go out with Carlisle tonight, for they have found a common interest. He will continue to form that bond of friendship. He will progress that fracture of his story so very well tonight, indeed he will.

But the whole time he will keep in the back of his mind the worry he has for his friend.

Edward will fill the need of that worry, for he_ will_ sulk and strain his thoughts to the very far places they wish not to go - to the dark corners of doubt and concern. Edward is practiced in this almost as much as he is practiced in his solitude.

I know it's hard, Reader, not to reach out and stroke his cheek to let him know that he is not, in fact, alone. I know it, I feel it, too.

But it must continue on this way for tonight.

We must placidly watch as Edward makes his way down the stairs and into the spacious dining hall alone. We are invisible as we sit beside him and watch him eat each bite carefully and with more and more worry over the girl he cannot hear.

But we can see, as he cannot, the strings beginning to weave themselves together.

Emmett and Carlisle breach the walls of the neighboring city and greet two dark silhouettes. They are both quite the gentlemen to their companions, but neither can fully commit their thoughts to the night's activities for they are both concerned for the friends they left behind earlier in the day who were busy worrying about a pencil and what it's heat could mean.

Alice and Jasper pass each other in the hallway of the school, having finished their sneak. They are walking with others and pointedly cordially ignoring each other's existence while in the presence and ever watchful eyes of their peers. But their boots still match and their hearts still want to touch and they are highly skilled in finding patience until the next sneak can take place.

Edward is politely silent in his isolated seat at the southern end of the dining hall. He feigns reading a polite book with a polite, bored expression on his face. If we lean in close we can hear his mind churning, though, can't we, Reader?

Across the yard from Edward's empty room sits Bella. She executes the mannerisms of a peaceful woman as she forsakes her Dearest Journal to record her story on paper for the eyes of Caius and his colleagues. Inside she is screaming for answers, however, and her hand is annoyed with the cool temperature of the wood of her pencil. Her thoughts are all whispering the same sort of thing, wondering where exactly the green eyes she cannot escape in sixth hour are pointed right now, and is the mind behind them wondering of her as well?

And only We, Reader, only We can start to see the limbs of the story wrap around each and every one of them and begin to pull inwards, slowly, slowly.

* * *

**We are still just beginning, remember that. I know some of it doesn't make any sense still. Ok, most of it. If you know me, you know that this is my fantasy writing style. **

**It will all be explained. Promise :)**

**I love your thoughts. Share them?**

**LOVE YOUS!**

**-Car**


	3. Stories

**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Stories**_

**Chapter 3 - Part 1**

**"The Arrow"**

_-*- Over the shoulder of a Remarkable -*-_

This room is large, isn't it, Reader?

Much larger and far more decadent than any room I've ever taken resident in. Perhaps you have been more privlidged in this area than I, but even if you have I am willing to bet it's not been _this_ privlidged.

Forgive me if my tone has changed to a heavier pace. This room has that effect. It is foreign and unfrequented. I feel a certain serious calm that you may feel as well, for we are here on business and must leave our play behind for just a moment or two.

It's rather dark in here as well, and for that I apologize. The things of this room are not my responsiblity though, so take my hand and stumble with me over to the caramel colored candle burning on the desk in the center of the room. Here we can see more, though still not all, even through Our eyes.

It's simply too dark and there's just nothing important enough for Me to clear the darkness for (though the things that live in here are quite grand).

As it is, up here in the highest room of the Forbidden Tower, things are made to be grand.

The broad wooden desk is grand. The floor-length red velvet curtains are grand. The floor to ceiling windows that hide behind them are grand.

The man walking in through the black double doors is grand.

And he is tired.

He does not sleep though, not at all, Reader. He does not need it, does not wish for it, for he is always in demand of something or someone of importance and sleep would be wasteful of his time.

We can still see that his steps are heavy and that is proof that he still has the ability to tire after a day of shooting himself relentlessly around the world.

And this is good because he is not so unrelatable now.

But as he approaches his desk a new wind takes breath in him. See it? His eyes are re-lit in their black depths and his spine had lost a bit of it's weathered curve.

It's all due to the stack of papers waiting for him in the center of his grand desk, just to the side of the candlelight we sought out just moments ago.

He knows that they are the select few he's requested. He knows that Caius will have weeded out the excess stories and ordered these _just so_. He knows that they are as close to being a perfect pile as is possible.

Neat and orderly and built with the words he has to read, these six sheets of paper are what he's traveled back to Tower High so swiftly for and it should be mentioned that they are also the reason for Our intrusion.

He lifts the first from the stack and is so distracted by indulging in the words he begins to sit without properly preparing himself for it.

Lucky for Aro, We are here to pull out his chair for him. For We have almost as much interest in the Stories as he does, don't We?

**-*- The first in the pile ****-*-**

**Name: **Emmett McCarty

**Age:** 22

**Classification: **Shield - physical

**Sub Class: **None

**Begin: **

_For the record, I think this is silly, but I'm going to do it anyway because that's the kind of guy I am. You guys want us to be honest and that's just great, because that's what I've always told myself I would be. Actually, that could be my Sub Class if you had "Truthfulls" as a Class at all. You don't. Maybe you should look into it? You seem to be changing things up. Having us write these papers, for instance. This is new._

_My story begins with nothingness. I have no recollection of my childhood. One day I was just here, at Tower High, being told I was Remarkable. Or, actually "A" Remarkable, but at the time I didn't get the difference between the two statements. It sounded sweet at the time, I won't lie. But I've always had questions about where I came from. Of course, as you know, I've worked past my issues with that. There's no going back, only going forward, right?_

_I've been at Tower High for one year as an official student, but I've lived here in the outer dorms ever since I was eleven. All I can remember is waking up in a strange bed with strange men surrounding me, discussing where I could have come from. Everything before that is blank. I knew my name, I knew my age, I knew that I didn't like cheese. But specifics about where I came and who I __came__ from were gone. It sucked._

_Around my twelfth birthday all of you decided that it needed to be determined what I was and whether or not I should be able to stick around. Aro allowed me to stay after a few tests had been done to determine my Remarkability, because my worth was more than obvious. And there was pretty much no question about what Class I was in after I single handedly deflected a boulder Alec tried to drop on me when I was twelve. I mean, seriously, dude. You guys were there. It was like he threw a cotton ball at me. That day definitely beats the crap out of almost all of my other days. I guess whoever dropped me off at Tower High knew that it was where I was supposed to end up. _

_So I've been studying here for one term, one year now, and it's been probably the best year of my life. You roomed me with Eddie and I broke down his ice cold shell just as I suspect you thought I would. You've let me tutor the more nervous Shields, since I've always been ready to embrace my Class, and that's given me some pretty great sense of purpose. Other things have happened that I don't like you guys sticking your nose in, but just know that I'm happy right now. I've always been upbeat, but this year I've actually become _happy_. I like getting to know what my full abilities are and stretching them every day. I like feeling like I can protect those that I love. Being a physical Shield is more than just being a mindless muscled maniac, and I've always seen that, and I'll always fight against that stereo type in the Tower world._

_You shouldn't need anymore than that. You know that I love what I am and I love the people that love me for what I am. And that's why I should be on The List. I know what's right and I will not compromise myself. I am loyal to those who understand me. _

_Everyone else, the rest of the whole freaking world if that's who it is, can suck it._

Aro sighs, and We sigh with him.

It's not a sigh of exhaustion or frustration. It's a sigh of amusement and affection because Emmett is a quite the Character and hearing from him will always be a little bit different from what you expect and a little bit more delightful than even he knows.

In a careful practice Aro places Emmett's paper to the side, not too close to the candle, and We all turn our attention to the next page.

**-*- The Pixie gets her say ****-*-**

**Name: **Alice Brandon

**Age:** 18

**Classification: **Breacher

**Sub Class: **Gateway

**Begin: **

_My name is Alice Brandon and I've lived here at Tower High my whole life. _

_I grew up in the off campus housing with Aro and his family during the years in which that was a happy place to dwell. Aro's sister raised me as her own. Her husband, Marcus, took me in quite readily as well. I had a family and a happy childhood, though I'll never really know who I am. I laughed and played with the other Remarkable's children, though the secret of what every one truly was didn't reach me until I was ten years old. I suppose that's when Aro started to feel guilty for what he knew would happen to me at the age of eleven. I mean, he allowed me to stay here, in residence within the community of the Tower. He had to know that something was going to happen to me and the ones I loved when I turned eleven. _

_I will never really forgive myself for that day. We aren't even allowed to speak her name anymore, so I won't write it here. But you all know the story. She was stolen from us. I had a feeling she would be gone, but I didn't say anything. I didn't warn Marcus and I didn't warn Aro and I sat in my bed all night crying while she hurt and he yelled. It's the darkest memory I have. It's the darkest vision I will ever see, no matter what the future holds. _

_Your collegues here have helped me work through my past, though. I have come to terms with what I can and cannot change, and I'm working on finding my self worth once again. I need to be happy in order to be useful. I believe it's Mr. Whitlock who teaches that in his class, is it not? Maybe it's another. I only seem to remember things from certain classes, and though he is not directly my professor I've sat in on a lecture or two of his during my free time. So I'm holding that happiness to be a goal of mine this year, my first as an official student. I _will _be happy again. I will find people and places that make me feel that way in order to exude my Remarkability to my full potential. I really am so very excited to be here, living in the Inner dorms and starting a new life almost. _

_I should be on The List just because I've made it this far and I'm still choosing to fight. I fight so many things everyday, because that is the situation life has put me in. I know that I can love, and I can do it well, and that The List calls for that more than anything else. I know that I have to prove myself over again and I want to have a chance to make it right. Whatever the Tower calls for, I'm ready for because I've already lost so much. The List is everyone's goal. We are supposed to want to be on it. _

_Maybe I'm the only one who needs to be. _

This one has pained Aro to read. That's why his shoulders have sunk down a bit and it's why the flame in the candle may not seem so bright.

He is close to this one, to Alice, you now know.

And Aro is a lot of hard things, but heartless he is not. He remembers the days she writes of quite well. If we were to open his memory and search it we would find these days tucked in the sealed envelope of his mind.

He sets the paper aside, resting it carefully on top of Emmett's. He knows these two voices well and he's glad to have spent some time with them once again. These were the papers he needed to read first, just for assurance of the pieces he was already putting into place.

Now for the unfamiliar.

**-*- A fort of a man ****-*-**

**Name: **Carlisle Cullen

**Age:** 21

**Classification: **Toucher

**Sub Class: **None

**Begin: **

_I'm not accustomed to discussing myself so I'm not very sure where to begin, honestly. I've had a very pleasant upbringing, if not unusual at times. My father is a doctor, my mother a housewife. We've always lived in Perso, the town closest to Tower High, so it has always been a part of my life. I've always been aware of it's existence and I've always been aware of it's existence's effect on the people in our town. My parents are very level headed, however, and I was brought up to consider the Tower High as nothing out of the ordinary like some of the, for lack of a better term, "groupies"._

_Now that I am here, of course my perspective has changed. Well, I suppose that change began during my eleventh year. I was unusually interested in what my father did, always, especially for such a young child. When I reached the age of ten my hunger for his knowledge of healing was quite high; my other hobbies and most friends fell into the sidelines of my life. We were out in the market the day it all happened. It was one of the rare days we had a street fair market happening so there were a great number of people out for it. I don't know how or why I heard her in the crowd, but I was the only one who did._

_I ended up saving a young lady's life that day. But it wasn't the normal way in which my father or any other physician would. I simply had to touch her where she was injured (in this case her shattered spine) and wish that she were healed. It was instinct. It hurt me. I had to share the pain with her, but I found myself gladly doing it even though she was a stranger. Once I healed her she was whisked away by a man she seemed to know and I was in shock from everything, namely thought that we'd just shared this experience but I'd never see her again. It was an odd, overwhelming reaction for such a young boy, and it left me questioning so much. But that was the first day I really was my Self and learnt of my abilities as a Toucher, so the experience brought the good with the bad._

_As I stated previously, realizing I would be attending Tower High in the future gave me a new perspective on it. So far I really have enjoyed my first term here and my second has also started out fairly well. I've grown close to a select few people during my time here and I look forward to even more close relationships that I feel may be forming now. I hold those that are dear to me very close. I have a strong distaste for violence but I will gladly defend those that are signifigant to me. Please do not underestimate the power of my love. I am not rough, or barbaric, or cold, or distant. But I am strong and I am willing to fight for what's right._

_I want to be a hiding place for my friends. I want to be the person they trust and confide in when the rest of the world feels like it has forsaken them. It's always been in my heart. It's what caused me to seek out the broken girl so long ago. That would be my worth to The List. The very heart I have had since I was a child._

The smile that pulls up Aro's lips is no surprise. Carlisle is likable. Carlisle is kind and true.

These are all things Aro has heard and is pleased to feel for himself the tone of this man.

A third paper is added to the pile by the candle. His eyes are hungry for more.

We all lean in a little closer as the next paper floats into the light.

**-*- When the Swan first spread her wings ****-*-**

**Name: **Isabella Swan

**Age:** 18

**Classification: **Shield - mind

**Sub Class: **Composer

**Begin: **

_My name is Isabella Swan but I prefer to be called just Bella. I am new to Tower High this term. I grew up in Forks, Washington with my both mother and father, though they divorced when I was quite young. I always felt like a normal child and didn't notice that I was lacking any sort of friendship with the other children until after I turned eleven and came into my Self._

_I was in the car with my father the day the accident happened. He was very upset over my mother's recent engagement to (her now husband) Phil and I was trying to comfort him. I wished and wished in my eleven year old mind that he could see things differently. He was too quiet and too sad and I wanted a new reality for him so I began dreaming one up._

_I had no idea that he could see it, too._

_The images of him and my mother happy and laughing in our kitchen that I wanted so badly to be true for him, and for me, had somehow escaped my mind and krept into his. Suddenly the car was swerving and we were barreling into oncoming traffic. Both of us were injured badly but he took the brunt of it. He lost the use of both his legs and looked broken everywhere. Only once, in a drug induced state while he was in the hospital has he spoken to me about what he saw - why he swerved. My daydream. I broke a few bones and felt like I'd rather be dead than live with what I'd done to my father for the rest of my life. It was my fault he ended up in that state. Somehow I'd used my good intentions to break him. I did not know what to do._

_I was educated on the existence and purpose of Tower High very shortly after that incident. Of course it all came together after that. It was like instant therapy in my life, actually. Finally, there was an explanation for my unexplained freakish tendancies. I started to read up on the world of The Tower and all of the Classifications. It didn't take me long to figure out what my Class and Sub Class were after attending the sprinkling of workshops offered in Seattle. I was surprised to find that Composer is my Sub Class, though, considering it is the trait that brought on the accident. Then again, as we all know, around normal humans it is quite difficult to identify a mind Shield._

_I am happy to be here. I feel at home already, mostly, and I know I'm ready for the journey._

_Why do I think I'm worthy of The List? Because I cannot feel fear. One of my most unusual developments after the accident (the most unexplained) is how I shed my reaction of fear. Up until meeting Edward here at Tower High I'd rid myself of fear since the accident. Since I was eleven years old I've been brave in the face of everything. And I think that's reason enough for my name to make The List. Not only my bizarre absence of fear, buy also my right to understand why it's come back to haunt me in the eyes of another Remarkable. I know there's something more happening here and as soon as I get over my inane fear of talking to him I will find it out. _

_I apologize if this is not exactly what you wanted to hear. But these are my thoughts and beliefs at the moment. This is me. _

_And I have a feeling that my story is really just beginning. _

The corners of Isabella's paper were torn and bent. It looked a little like Aro imagined her mind: busy and full of character.

As his hand passes her paper on to the discard pile he longs to hear the voices inside of her for himself. He knows, though, he would never do such a thing without permission and he doesn't truly believe she would ever permit it, so he lets the desire pass.

We can see here, Dear Reader, the true heart of our Tower High leader. He has a selfish want to keep all of the treasures that come to him here, to his school. He thinks they are rare and beautiful and he loves them all for it. But he knows that the world needs them more. The Cause needs them more. So he will sacrifice his most treasured to The List.

He turns back to his task at hand in order to fulfill that duty. He almost laughs out loud at the one awaiting him next.

Caius has such an odd sense of humor. Surely his old friend knew that by mixing the last two in such this way Aro would be amused.

Hastily he picks up the next page and begins to scan it. It's the only one he knows inside and out but must read again, for good measure.

And all of this is done quickly for he is eager to know the words of the last story.

**-*- He is Jasper, but he is no stone ****-*-**

**Name: **Jasper Whitlock

**Age:** 19 _(Note: The boy is now 23)_

**Classification: **Gateway

**Sub Class: **None

**Begin: **

_Jasper Whitlock. _

_Up until now I've lived like a ghost. _

_I ran away from home when I was eleven because there was nothing for me there. I've always felt the need to run. But I was never running from something, always towards something. I just never had any idea what. _

_And no matter where I went I felt things. A lot of things. _

_In Texas I felt pride. In California I felt freedom. In Wyoming, despair. In Vegas, everything. I've felt and I've felt and I've felt every damn thing ever since I can remember, but it got worse the day that my sister died. The day I first began to run and I couldn't bear to feel my parent's despair on top of my own. _

_I had no idea what a Gateway was, but now I know that I am the rarest kind. An original. _

_That's what keeps me here. My instinct is to get out. But I can feel that I'm here for something bigger than my need to be free. What? I don't know yet. Maybe it's The List. Maybe it's so much more. _

_I know what you're thinking. There is no more. The List is _it_. _

_Well, I disagree. There _is_ more. There is life. _

_Maybe that's exactly what's going to get me a place on the damn thing. My talented way of keeping the rest of them rooted in what's real and true and good. _

_Because it's not about all the stuffy professors you guys worship here and it's not about some war that's been forming over the past few years. I_

_ don't like rules and I don't like confinement. _

_But I want to know what I'm all about, so I'm here to stay. _

_And when I do make your precious List, I'll teach you all that we've already been flying all along. We don't need some glorified Tower to show us how. _

This is Our Jasper, Reader.

Ah, yes, he truly is a unique kind, and this is why Aro never tires of reading his story. True, the paper was written years ago, when Jasper was in his first term. He is now a full Remarkable himself, but just barely, and his permittance to teach at Tower High is only due to Aro's stern belief in his abilities and secret love of Jasper's unconventional ways.

The others would have nothing to do with him and his wild spirit.

Aro's simply pleased that he's never been enclined to change for any of them.

So his paper has been kept safe and sound until now when it was to rest in a neat pile with it's counter parts.

Aro's hand smooths out Jasper's paper on top of the others he's already read and his gaze lingers on it as he takes just a moment to imagine himself as young and revolutionary as the Whitlock boy.

Aro was that carefree, once.

But perhaps carefree isn't an appropriate term.

Jasper Whitlock cannot be carefree about anything, really, for he only concerns himself with things and people he finds terribly, terribly important.

We cannot pause long on this line of thought for We cannot keep Aro from moving on to the next, the final, paper.

_This will surely be a treat_, he thinks to himself as he pushes the candle a little further into the center of the desk.

His eyes fall to the desk and his heart soars to the sky.

It's all exactly as he expected and wished for.

**-*- Can't buy me love ****-*-**

**Name: **Edward Anthony Masen

**Age:** 21

**Classification: **Gateway

**Sub Class: **Breacher & Composer

**Begin: **

_You know everything about me already. You knew it before I even arrived at Tower High. What else can I tell you? _

_I'm the wonder boy. The freak with too many Classifications. The lonley soul that lost his parents and then his ability to relate to others... _

_Aro, this is absurd. We are not children. Assignments are pointless, and a waste of time, and I cannot imagine you actually thought I would participate. _

_If you want me on The List you will put me there, and I will be grateful. _

_Though I have no idea how I'm supposed to grow to love the rest of them when that emotion is as foreign to me as the Tower itself. _

_Good luck. _

We do not need to clear the darkness to see the look on Aro's face here, Reader. We can feel it even if we do not understand it.

He is excited, and proud, and in disbelief that it's all finally happening. Now.

They are _all_ here and it can officially begin.

The few years wait Aro will endure until the younger ones, Alice and Bella, complete their training will seem like nothing to him for he is timeless.

And then The List will be formed. The Cause will be in motion. And the Tower will be pleased.

As we back out of the room we keep our eyes trained on the man in the chair, sitting quietly, stroking a lock of his long, black hair. He does not see Us, does not care to even if he could, for the thin sheets resting by the candle will keep his entire attention tonight.

He is resting in the strings of the bow, waiting to be shot out once again. For it's his duty to fly, fly before they do, so he can cut the path through the wind for them.

He rarely gets to rest, and even now he's eager to soar once again.

He may be The Arrow, but they are the warriors.

**Chapter 3 - Part 2**

**"The Waking"**

We perch far away and watch it happen in succession. Our secret, quiet ways allow us once again to peek, Dear Reader, into their lives as no one else gets to do.

It's quite delightful.

The Tower High is dark, for it is the dead of night.

Because of this the disturbances should be even more clear to Us.

They wake in order:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Emmett's eyes open towards the ceiling. He thinks he had nothing more than a bad dream. But he's not sure. He does not feel worried or apprehensive, just _awake_. Perhaps he's just hungry.

Little Alice sits straight up in bed. The expensive sheets surrounding her fall from her shoulders into a confused pile at her waist. She cannot understand what her mind just showed her; the four flashes of stanger faces followed by his, her Jasper's.

Carlisle Cullen carefully addresses the sate of sudden waking he's finding himself in, smoothing his hair back and clearing his throat. He is not so put together on the inside, though, is he Reader? His heart is frantic and his mind is searching for the reason he feels like something signifigant has changed. He immediately begins to worry about Esme and we turn our eyes away as he decides to call and check in...

Bella must write about what she has seen. His eyes appeared in her dream, she is sure of it, but they were not alone or they were not really his, she's not sure. Why did it wake her so suddenly? Her Dearest Journal must know. She must not forget that this dream was so important her body woke her to make sure she recorded it.

In his cabin on the far side of the campus Jasper starts fixing himself a cup of tea. He's almost certain he knows what woke him in the middle of the night and he is bordering on excitement. If only he could sneak and find if Alice is awake as well, he could feel complete.

And Edward, our Edward... well, he was not asleep at all when this all happened so he could not be woken up by it. But he still felt it, a jolt inside, and he does not know what exactly it means or what the appropriate reaction is because he has not been himself in the last 48 hours. He thinks it's still just _her_ and what her slience, her beauty, and her mystery are doing to destroy him.

And if we turn just a bit, Reader, to another that I have not introduced yet, you will see one more waking. She is a little bit later than the rest, but that is to be expected for she is not asleep inside the Tower High.

A few miles away and just over that happy hill there, right on the east side of Perso you can see her.

Her blonde hair is not disheveled despite her being in bed and her curves are only highlighted in the moonlight coming through her window.

She wakes, and is confused, and hesitantly produces a ball of light to aid her sight in the darkness of her room. Nothing is moved, nothing has intruded, so why did she wake?

None of them know!

None of them know, Reader!

That this is the end. It is the beginning.

It is the rousing of the new and the death of the old.

This is The List finally waking up.

* * *

**This was a necessary informational chapter and I hope it helped a little, at least with some backgrounds. You never really know what you're going to find in one of these, though, because I never really know until I'm in the midst of writing them :)**

**I love your thoughts. Share them?**

**LOVE YOUS!**

**-Car**


	4. Moments

**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Moments**_

**Chapter 4 - Part 1**

**"The Arrow and The Sneak"**

_-*- In a secret corridor We watch, We listen -*-_

Stay quiet, Reader, as we walk close behind the back of Jasper Whitlock.

His strides are long and quick and meaningful. We have to work a bit to keep up with him for We are not as practiced in purposeful walking as he is. He's had to learn it here, at the Tower high, to earn his place among those who do not want him to belong.

He's learned to walk tall and think even taller.

And, oh, how tall his thoughts are today!

He spots Aro and nods at him, a confirmation that he has received the note and is to be followed so that their private discussion can be had. We want to nod with him, don't we, Reader? Because we feel as in on this mission as he does. Surely you feel it, too, the sense of purpose and movement.

Because We are with Jasper right now We can know one thing that he knows:

The List is alive.

And he is on it.

"What happens now?" Jasper asks the instant they step into seclusion, the Forbidden Corrider, an area of the school that students are not allowed in.

"My dear boy, whatever do you mean?" Aro replies with a smile We have not seen on his face before, but Jasper has.

He's being coy and silly for he is in a fantastic mood.

"Don't play that with me, old man. I felt the change last night. The List has been composed, hasn't it? I'm on it."

Aro admires the conviction with which the Whitlock boy speaks. The boy has always had a certain _air_ about him but building his actual confidence took some work. Yes, the arrogance was always there. But it used to be a mask and a shield. Now it was a feature. A trait.

"Yes, of course it has. You've studied enough to know the signs of the Composition. It happened last night, as you felt, and there was never a doubt in my mind that you would be on it. Do not disclose this information to anyone, though. We cannot make a formal announcement until much, much later. We cannot even have the first formal List meeting until sometime next week at the earliest."

"Alec is going to shit himself when he finds out you were right about me."

Jasper's smile spreads across his face. He's been waiting for this day for a long, long time. He's not concerned about how long he must keep it a secret or however long it will take until he can meet the rest of The List. He does not need any of that to feel solid. A small woman with grey diamonds in her eyes keeps him grounded, she gives him reason... but still we can see that he cannot deny the satisfaction being on The List gives him, so for now he needs to know nothing else about it.

It's proof of his worth here. It's proof of the value of the struggle he's endured to keep true to himself and be Remarkable at the same time.

Aro's smile for Jasper's acceptance is much farther away than Ours is. He cannot show it but he trusts that the boy before him will take the uncomfortable clearing of his throat as a place holder for the smile he cannot offer. Aro must stay as resigned as possible in the confines of these walls. No favorites are allowed at Tower High, not among staff. Aro's complete joy at the Whitlock boy's success of making The List must be kept under wraps while within the stones that make up this school. Still, he does his best to express his happiness for the man standing before him.

"Yes, well. I doubt Alec will actually soil himself but I'm sure all of your colleagues will be... impressed with your achievement."

"Come off it, man. You know how I am. I don't want to impress anyone. I want to disprove anything Alec has ever believed about me and I want to make you proud."

His words are true. We can see him pulling them up from his heart, the very holding cell in which we all keep our most truest desires, and We can verify that Jasper has been working towards these two outcomes for a while. They are red and sincere, his words, and Aro knows this almost as much as We do, though he does not have Our special sight.

And, just because it's not hard to know when you care for someone as Aro cares for the Whitlock boy, this statement breaks Aro down. Look, Reader, and see his walls crumbling around him. Just the outter wall, the one easiest to break, falls. From behind it steps a man that loves this boy like a son. A man that is not The Arrow or the leader of Tower High. Just a man who cherishes special beings and has believed in this particular Remarkable since the day he first found him.

_Damn the rules, damn the mask_, Aro thinks to himself as he reaches out a hand and places it on the boy's shoulder.

"And I _am_ so proud of you, my boy. I've never doubted you. Never. Not in any of the minutes of my sleepless nights. Know that, always."

It's a special moment in the Forbidden Corrider that we are intruding on, and perhaps it's time to go now. We back away and just miss the beginning of an embrace between a tired man and an exhilirated soul. But as we walk away we can be satisfied knowing that many who roam the Tower High are more than Remarkable. They are real and alive and full of character.

**Chapter 4 - Part 2**

**"Messages from The Stronghold to The Fort"**

_-*- Similar, yet with different forms of protection, we go behind the barriers of these men -*-_

**_Ineter-Tower Mail_**

**_To: Cullen_**

**_From: McCarty_**

**_Subject: Field Trip_**

Hey Carl, we have to go into town. Tonight preferably. Rose called me this morning all shook up over something. She won't tell me what's wrong over the phone and she won't give in and tell me she's worried about whatever's bugging her, even though I can hear it in her voice. Let me know what your schedule is. She said they're both free tonight so this will be good for both of us. I know tonight isn't a free night for student outings but I was summoned by Whitlock for a meeting today (who knew he was so interested in memory loss?) and I'll get him to write us another "field trip" training slip while I'm there, so don't worry about getting one. Let me know ASAP if you can go. I have a weird feeling today, too, so I really want to go see the ladies. Just let me know, dude.

-Em

**_Ineter-Tower Mail_**

**_To: Emmett McCarty_**

**_From: Carlisle Cullen_**

**_Subject: RE:Field Trip_**

Of course I will go with you, but we cannot go tonight. I overheard my thrid hour professor talking about a disturbance in Perso last night so no student outings will be permitted, even for "field trips". I would never pass up a chance to see Esme, and Rosalie's comfort is important as well, but I think we have to wait a few nights before we will be permitted into the city. Three should do if I remember the caution code in Perso well enough. I'm glad you've decided to take action so quickly, though. Quite frankly, I feel odd as well. I'm looking forward to discussing this with you further on our way to the city but I'll brush over some of the details now. I actually spoke to Esme last night after I woke up from the strangest dream. She's done a lot of research on the Tower of the Sky, Emmett, so I had to consult her about the way I felt when I woke up. She thinks my dream (which is just a word we're using for it, not what I really think it is, I think it was more of a vision of sorts) is tied to the Tower. Or, rather, The List. I was wanting to meet with her and discuss it more in person, as well, which is how I know about the outings being on hold. Please let me know if you think your odd feeling could be related as well, it could be very important to the urgency of our seeing the girls. I'm trying to prepare for what this could mean for all of us... but I do not want to project anything, either. Let's plan on visiting them three nights from tonight. What time do you want to meet? The usual time or earlier?

**_Ineter-Tower Mail_**

**_To: Cullen_**

**_From: McCarty_**

**_Subject: ?_**

Holy hell, Esme thinks this could be connected to The List?

I think I had a weird "dream" too, after hearing you describe what you went through last night. All I remember is waking up and knowing I felt different. Like, changed. I thought that it was just because I had skipped dinner to train Eric, the physical Shield late start we just got in, but nothing helped when I tried eating. And now, all day today, I've been having flashes of things coming back to me from my "dream". Faces and eyes and weird stuff but none of it's been clear enough to interpret. I thought I ate bad meat or something. This is huge, buddy. I mean, there's no reason why you or I couldn't be on The List, right?

I checked up on what you said about student outings being on hold and you're right. Perso is in definite freak out mode because some creep saw something "supernatural" sketchy in a window or something... I'm going to ask Rose about it when we see them. I swear I hardly believe that such rad people like you and Rose could come from such an odd little city, bro. They need to grow some balls. Anyway, I think that all four of us should meet up when we go. Rose will probably bitch about it a little bit, but I think it's more important that we all hear what Esme has to say than get some alone time, you know? I hope that's all right with you and Esme. Three nights from tonight is perfect. We should leave a half an hour early just to be sure we have enough time to talk and freak out and stuff.

Cause THIS. IS. HUGE! The List, man! The freaking List! Our whole lives could be different. I don't even know what to do right now... I'm totally skipping fifth hour and telling Eddie all about all this crazy crap!

**_Ineter-Tower Mail_**

**_To: Emmett McCarty_**

**_From: Carlisle Cullen_**

**_Subject: Relax_**

Emmett, my friend, please take a moment and breathe. There's nothing to be that worked up about, at least not yet.

Leaving early is perfect. I double checked with Esme and she agrees to the extra time and to meeting with all of us. The girls are together right now anyway as I understand it, and will be as often as possible until the night we can all meet up. You were right, she seems to know what's going on with Rosalie and is making an effort to comfort her because whatever it is has made her uneasy. Please relax until we can get to them, Emmett. We don't know anything concrete yet and Esme assured me that Rosalie will be fine. Thank you for helping me work all of this out. Three nights from tonight, hopefully, we'll have more answers.

- Carlisle

P.S. While I don't necessarily agree with you sharing this information with others, I know that you and Edward are close and I understand you value his insight on things. Just be careful, please. This cannot get out around the whole school. The full Remarkables have ways of doing things and if anyone fuddles their methods... just, be careful.

**_Ineter-Tower Mail_**

**_To: Cullen_**

**_From: McCarty_**

**_Subject: RE:Relax_**

All right, I've calmed down a little, don't worry. I just can't get how crazy this is out of my head.

Eddie's trustworthy. I'm going to tell him. He'd tell me.

And, "fuddles"? Really, dude, is that even a word?

**Chapter 4 - Part 3 - APOV**

**"The Pixie meets the Swan"**

___-*- In the mind of nobility we can dance like a sprite -*-_

As I watch her walk down the hall I cannot help but think just one thing larger than I think all of the other things.

_She looks tired._

I suppose it's to be expected, though. The poor thing probably didn't sleep much last night. For those who don't normally "see" it can be overwhelming and confusing.

I follow her quietly through the halls and just assess. I'm used to this method of observation. I'm good at being inconspicuous and extra good at observing.

I'm a fantastic little Sneak.

Isabella Swan is very pretty, despite the tiredness surrounding her. That's the second thing I notice.

I am glad for this, I must admit. When I first saw her face in my mind last night I was not so sure she would stand out as much as I thought she should. I was wrong. Her hair is brighter in person and her eyes deeper. The paleness of her skin is alluring instead of sickly. Her mannerisms are kind and inviting, though not fragile.

She is the only one from the late night visions I had last night that I did not immediately recognize, so certainly I had to get to know her for myself. I'm a woman of action, after all.

I always have been since that horrible night so many years ago when I was horrible did absolutely nothing...

After checking my watch I realize I only have twenty two minutes until I am supposed to meet Jasper so I hurry to make my move on Isabella.

_Brace yourself Isabella Swan. Alice Brandon is about to enter into your life._

Now, just as I saw she would when I looked into her future this morning, she approaches the vending machine and puts a dollar in.

She orders chips. Once. Twice. Nothing happens.

She hits the change button once. Twice.

Three times.

Nothing happens.

Cue me.

"Here, it gave me something for free the other day so I owe it a dollar anyway."

I hold the new dollar out to her and she looks surprised just like she's supposed to.

I can see the wheels in her mind working just like all the rest of them when I pull things like this.

_Where did this tiny girl come from? How did she know it ate my dollar? Why is she also holding an iced tea that I was going to get after I purchased the chips?_

"My name is Alice. Alice Brandon - take the dollar, Bella - and I can see visions of the future. I knew you wouldn't be getting chips from this machine after it ate your dollar so I followed you here and brought an extra one. I saw this one working, by the way. This machine is just, really faulty. Also, I got you this iced tea because I saw that the other machine would be out of those when you went to get one after attempting to get the chips. Apparently today isn't very snack friendly for you."

I pause as she processes everything I have said. I prepare myself for the inevitable wait for her mind to catch up with my words and for her to-

But wait. She's already blinked away the surprise and is taking the iced tea from my hand.

This is new.

"Thank you Alice. I see you already know my name is Bella so I'll skip the introduction. I really, really appreciate the help. I'm having a very hard morning."

I'm impressed with the confident way she takes the dollar and the iced tea from me. She's not afraid of accepting help. Her smile is kind and her turquoise nailpolish is cute. I'm starting to think she is more and more fit for a place next to me on The List and I want to be her friend.

"How has it been hard?" I ask.

I check my watch. I have seventeen minutes for my first friendship conversation with Bella Swan before I must sneak away.

"It's just little things, I guess. I missed breakfast in the dining hall because I was running late. I also forgot the pencil I always use in sixth hour on my desk... and that sounds silly but it's just kind of a special pencil... and I didn't sleep well last night which is probably what's making me so flustered this morning. I just... I was woken up very suddenly and... well I've been having an ongoing sort of problem with another student here and I think he had something to do with the bad dream I had last night. It's hard to explain. I know it sounds crazy."

She pauses and stares at me and I wait for her to get to where I need her to be.

And there it is:

Recognition.

"Actually, I think you may have been in my dream too..." she thinks out loud as her eyes narrow and she looks more deeply at me for the first time.

"It wasn't a dream," I say to her, softly and matter-of-factly as she grabs her chips and we start walking towards her next class. "It was a vision. You shouldn't have anymore ever again because you're not a Gateway, but last night was an exception because the Tower gave it to you."

There's another pause between us before she can respond. This one is more serious. This one feels more like the pause Jasper took right before he kissed me for the first time. The kind of pause that gives you time to understand that things are going to be entirely, utterly, wonderfully different for you when you're done pausing.

"The Tower gave me a vision? Why? How do you know?"

Her own voice is more urgent now and I love it. Urgency is vital to my existence, to my energy. Jasper relaxes me but life energizes me. I love this. I love that I'm sharing it with my new friend.

"It's The List, Bella! I felt it, too, last night. I'm used to visions so those didn't bother me like they have surely bothered the rest of you, but it took me a while to figure out why I had so many at once. And they were all of you guys. The rest of The List. That's why I had to find you, talk to you. I think we're both on it and I wanted to meet you."

"That's crazy! Alice, how do you know, though?"

"I've grown up around Tower High. I've heard the Remarkable's theories and studies on the Composition my entire life. And since I've been a student here I've studied with Professor Whitlock after hours, and he knows _a lot _about List selection and acceptance, too. Something like this, like a jolt or awakening is supposed to happen when the list is composed. And it did, it happened last night. You can't deny it!"

She chews a chip very slowly as she thinks. I like that she doesn't look freaked out or in disbelief. She's just putting the pieces together so that she knows she can trust my words.

"Holy crap, that all kind of lines up. Well, who else did you see? I can't remember very much about my dream, or vision, I guess. You barely looked recognizable to me. But I guess that's to be expected since I thought my entire dream was about Ed-"

She stops talking then and stops walking as well. My arm jerks back since I'd laced it through hers and I wasn't prepared for the sudden stop in movement. I only have twelve minutes to stand here and watch her freak out before I have my secret rendezvous with Jasper so I hope that she doesn't take too long to pull herself back together.

Her eyes refocus but they are not clear. She looks upset and shaken, but I can tell that it's not from the news I have brought her because she'd been handling that perfectly well up until this moment.

She looks at me and smiles. It's the kind, sicnere smile I like most about her and I know she will become truly important to me. My visions have shown me that we are meant to form a close friendship, but of course they mean nothing until I decide to act on it.

And I've decided.

"Thank you for the information, Alice. And, of course, for the snacks. I'm so sorry but I have to go because I've just realized something... and, well, I just need to go and clear my head. Please, stalk me again tomorrow!"

I like that she can laugh and joke with me depspite her obvious upset over some unknown thing. I do not look for her future in my mind as I walk away from where our friendship first began because I found her and I befriended her and that's all I need to know for now.

**Chapter 4 - Part 4 - EPOV**

**"The Guard is down"**

___-*- This is most unusual, Reader! The key to the lock on the door of our Edward's mind... -*-_

I hate sitting in the dining hall.

I cannot ever reason with myself why I come down here.

Lately, I suppose I _do_ know why. But I'm unwilling to recognize that reason. It's absurd, after all.

It's not blank down here. It's full of noise, inside and out. Thoughts and voices surround me in this space. Voiced information and hidden opinions are all over my mind, invading my own thoughts, because this room is usually full of people who don't know I can hear everything they think.

I have them all in my grasp and I indulge in them, here. The dining hall. The center of my hell and the heartbeat of my escape.

I'm sitting alone, as usual, at a long table made for at least ten people. I have one tray of chicken parmesean and a glass of orange juice in front of me. It;'s an unconventional combonation, I know, but they were out of scotch so this had to do.

I'm just joking. There's plenty of scoth. I know where Aro keeps it, and he's nowhere near out of it. He just hates when I convince Heidi to slip me some and I feel like keeping on his good side for the time being.

I feel young in the dining hall. I feel my age, my short twenty one years, and I like that, I suppose. I want to be young and carefree. I want to walk around with the newness and excitement of life surrounding me. I can almost pretend to do that here, in my public solitute, far better than I can do it alone in my room in my private solitude.

Still, in the past few days, I have not come here for any of the reasons I think I might have come here before.

I come here searching the crowd for silence. I desperately push through the noise just to find the one void.

_She's_ not in here, though. I can already tell because there is no pocket of nothingness. It's all full of some voice or another and it all bores me to death.

Before I have time to get as satisfyingly depressed over _her_ absence as I'd wish to, Emmett sits down across form me and brightens up the whole room.

It is very hard to stay blue around Emmett. I need him as a friend so much more than he will ever know because of that.

Our conversations are very quick and precise now that we know each other as well as we do. He's always more easy going than I am. Always. But we've found a cadance that works for us and I appreciate the way we are.

Sometimes I even think that if I could hug him, I would.

"Hey man. Is the chicken any good?" he asks as he sits down, reaches onto my plate, and takes a piece of chicken for himself.

"It's fine. I think I got the last of it, though. I was a little slow getting down here today. I didn't sleep well. Do you want me to put some on another plate for you?"

"Nah, I can't stay long. I just wanted to come, you know, say hi."

He's still chewing my chicken and I can't believe that he "just came to say hi" because now he's looking at me like he is a child and I am a parent and he is expecting me to tell him a secret that only adults know.

"Ok... well, you look like you want to say something else," I try.

"Yeah, I do. I don't know if I can though."

"Emmett, it's _me_. You can tell me anything."

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, I know I can. It's just... this is big. _Huge_. But you told me about your crush on the Bella girl-"

"No, no I did not tell you that, Emmett. You've taken on the assumption that I have a crush on her. I actually know nothing about her and have not yet formed a full opinion-"

"Eddie, you're hot for her. You don't need much more of an opinion than that! Have you talked to her yet?"

"It's only been about a day since you've ordered me to speak to her."

"So... no?"

I shake my head and laugh at him because he's ridiculous. I can't help but be entertained his innocent playfullness because it's so rare to see sometimes, what with his tendancy to be crude. I can often find it hidden in his curiosity and good intentions. Mostly I just find him loud, though.

"No, of course not. I promise to tell you when I do."

"Ok. Good plan. Make it soon. Big things are happening, man."

He looks satisfied with my answer and I believe that he believes that I have intentions of speaking to Isabella Swan.

My secret is that I do not.

I want to know what her deal is before I attempt talking to her because I'm so afraid of coming off as an ass in front of her I cannot even breathe when I try to imagine it.

I didn't even sleep last night, the thoughts of possibly having her in my life were too overwhelming.

I'm not a good people person. I'm not even good at imagining myself being a people person.

How am I supposed to speak to her when I cannot anticipate what she's going to say and her eyes are so damn beautiful?

Emmett is still looking at me expectantly so I try to listen in to him and find out what he's acting so odd about. But he's got his mind singing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" on a loop, though, so now I'm even more suspicious.

"What aren't you telling me?" I ask him, this time with conviction because I know there's something. This is the same look he gave me when he hid Alec's favorite Shield Training text book and wanted me to ask him about it because he thought it was such a good prank. "I know it's something you're excited about and I'm too tired to pretend I don't care. I do care. And you're blocking me from your thoughts."

"Wait, why are you tired?"

He stops fiddling with my napkin and looks at me seriously. I rarely see him this still.

"That would be because I couldn't sleep last night."

"Like, at all?"

"Not even a little bit."

"Oh."

"You sound disappointed."

"It's just... are you sure you didn't sleep for a little bit and then got woken up by some weird ass dream that could actually be a vision that you can't explain and that's made you feel like your life is different somehow?"

I take a second to really look at him so he can have the opportunity to feel how asinine he's coming off right now. He's still just as serious as before but I feel like this should be a joke because it sounds like one.

"I'm sure, Emmett. I didn't sleep at all."

I want to stop the conversation there. I want him to shake his big, silly head and accept my words and then go off and meet his friend Carlisle for whatever it is they do in the city, because I assume that is what he is going to do next. He always finds me and checks in before he goes for some reason. I want to keep him shut out of what _did_ happen last night, despite my lack of sleep, and not go to a place where I know he'll ask more questions. But I can't. Becuase for some reason I tell Emmett McCarty everything.

"I did feel something... shift, though. Like a jolt on the inside of me."

His eyes light up and I know I've either said exactly the right thing or exactly the wrong one. He leans forward a bit even though there's no one within feet of us. His voice is low when he speaks and I sort of like the feeling of being in on something with a friend that other people in the room might be curious about.

I'm not prepared for the important words he says, though.

"That's good news, Eddie. Good, _huge_ news. I felt it, too, except I was asleep. I thought maybe you had to be sleeping to feel it... but I couldn't imagine you wouldn't make it, so it's good you felt it even though you were awake. What we felt, it's something big. Carlisle thinks so, too. He thinks it was the Tower calling The List."

I immediately sit up, righting my position and trying to clear my head.

This is insane.

"That's insane."

"No, bro, it's right on! Think about it. I'm the strongest, most powerful Shield this school's ever seen, Carlisle's a pretty unique guy, believe me, and you... well you're like every Remarkable's wet dream. What with the whole enigma thing you have going on... we're prime List material! We're going to find out more about it all in a few nights. Carlisle knows someone in Perso that knows a crap-ton of stuff about the Tower. He thinks she can help us figure it out because the Remarkables won't act on it for a while it seems. I'm so freaking stoked you're on it, too!"

He's really looking excited now and I have no idea what to think.

Then it hits me.

The one thought that scares me the most because I cannot understand why I have it.

_Is _she_ on the list, too?_

I was thinking of _her_ last night when I felt the jolt, the change. Though that's not saying much, I've been thinking of her ever since I first saw her two days ago.

Still, I find it signifigant enough to explore and I mark this moment as something important, something to remember.

This is the moment I decide that I did need to talk to Isabella Swan. If Emmett is right about all of this then things are about to change and I think that it may be an opporunity for me to try and change as well.

I need to know her and I need to know if she is on The List as well, (she can burn the pencil too, after all) or if my being on The List would make me any more appealing or threatening to her.

"I'm going with you to Perso. I want to know more."

"Excellent! We meet in the back lot by the Shield Corridor's back entrance. We're going in three nights. You, me, and Carlisle can go together."

He nods at me and takes a drink of my orange juice with happy eyes.

I already feel different inside already and I like it, even though I'm not convinced that he's not having a major over reaction as usual.

But If I am going to be a full Remarkable on The List then I have to be willing to chances and be the man Aro and Emmett want me to be.

Yes. This is the moment I believe started the avalanche of change in my life. This is the moment I decide to change things in myself that I thought I never could.

**Chapter 4 - Part 5**

**"The Beloved and the Rose"**

___-*- Let's take a trip, my Reader, over the happy hill we've heard of once before -*-_

We have traveled quite far, I think. Not into the land, but rather into time.

The three days have passed. The mighty three days our lovely Emmett spoke of to Edward are gone now, washed away by time, and here we are in the darkness of the third night, traveling, traveling to Perso.

We are on our way to meet two young ladies I have not formally introduced You to yet.

They are quite stunning, I will warn you. They are both a gem in their own way, so do not be surprised when you are drawn to them instantly.

I have a secret about one of them that I will not tell, not yet, but that will come to be known in time. I hate to tease you, but you should know it's there just in case any odd behavior should spring up.

So, in this moment, have patience, Dear Reader, as we follow Edward, Emmett, and Carlisle over this hill and into the city that borders the Tower's territory. Into the tiny town of Perso that knows not the importance it's hosting tonight...

Further back in the darkness three more figures make their way over the hill. They left a little later than planned because two of them are gossiping relentlessly and got careless with time.

You can see here, though, Reader, that Jasper does not mind the girl's gossip. He does not mind much about them, in fact, because he is so enamoured with young Alice she can do no wrong in his eyes.

"I cannot believe you do that every day, Bella," Alice chides her new friend in a playfull way.

She secretly thinks that maybe she would pull such tricks, too, if obtaining Jasper hadn't been as swift and as easy it was.

"I can't help it. Touching the pencil after he has is like my new, sick addiction."

"So you just push it off your desk _everyday_. Just so he will pick it up for you?"

Isabella shakes her head in shame. Hearing the words out loud surely sound as absurd to her as they do to Us, Reader.

"Yes. That's what I do. Every day for the past week that we've been in class together. It's just... I haven't forced myself to speak to him yet so I do this everyday to remind myself of why I need to. Because the pencil burns _every day_, Alice. Without fail. And Carlisle still can't feel it."

This converstaion carries on as these three reach the walls of the city. Jasper is silent the whole time but his hand rests in Alice's for as long as possible. On their walk from the school to the city they have been Sneaking, even in the unexpected presence of Bella. Alice assured him that her new friend would be good to them, true to their secret, so he took no hesitation in connecting his skin with hers during their walk.

Jasper thinks he likes the new Bella girl and she thinks she likes him, even though he's been quite quiet. We can feel their comfort around eachother and see that Alice is the perfect breach in their stranger status.

Plus, they both know now that they may be on The List together, don't they? What more reason would two people have to be friends than that?

Entering the city is not hard and very soon We are following the two girls and the twisty, free spirited man into a small house on the outer limits of Perso.

We enter the room behind all of them and take our place behind the small circle they have formed.

Many of the people in this room look surprised to see each other, don't they Reader?

Roalie and Esme are in awe at how many more people have been invited into thier family's cottage than they were aware of. In result of this Emmett and Carlisle both receive varrying looks of disapproval.

Neither of these men notice, though, for they are in the presence of unexpected company as well.

Emmett knew Professor Whitlock would be here, but he forgot to tell his two traveling companions. His meeting with the Professor three days prior resulted in a conversation that led to an invitation to this little get together. The two men stumbled upon their odd "dreams" and found that they were both interested in hearing more about The List (though Jasper Whitlock is most obviously hiding his superior knowledge of the Tower's ways from everyone. Surely he is only here because he is most curious about meeting the rest of them).

Jasper and Alice did not take much time at all disclosing the chagne they both felt and as soon as they stopped loving each other in celebration of making The List together. He told her of the meeting this night and would not dream of going without her.

She of course demanded that Bella come with.

And this, Reader, is how we have them all in this small, poorly lit room now.

The most shocked expressions, however, are not the ones briefly exchanged between dear friends Carlisle and Bella. Nor are they the ones between Emmett and Bella who remember each other from the first day of new Shield incorporation. They aren't the expressions held between Alice and Edward who know each other just slightly because they have second hour together.

Oh no.

The most shocked expressions are most certainly the expressions held on Edward and Isabella's faces as they take in each other's proximity at this most important of gatherings. Now they both know they must speak to the other and only one of them has already decided to do so, though neither as taken action yet. Just today in sixth hour they had their now normal silent exchange of her dropping her pencil and him retrieving it from the ground for her.

"I think, before we start, my cousin and I should have a word in the other room," the woman named Esme (She on one fo the two who is new to you, the one with the caramel colored hair and the soft, love filled face) says to everyone as politely as her shocked voice can. "Both of you, please come with."

She directs Emmett and Carlisle with her and the blonde beauty, Rosalie into a smaller, separate room, leaving the rest of our Characters to fend for themselves.

It's hard not to shift from foot to foot, isn't it, Reader? It's hard to stand still and keep your gaze steady on the wall in front of you as if you aren't burning to steal uneasy glances at everyone else. The awkward tension is thick in the room. It's pushing in on everyone forcing their curious gazes away from each other.

Lucky for Us, We _can_ steal these glances. And We do!

Jasper and Alice are no longer touching. They can't though, can they? They are in public now, more public than they want to be, and who knows if they can trust the elusive Edward Masen with thier secret love? No one knows much of anything about him, not even our Professor Whitlock since he has not had the young man in his class yet. So they stand side by side unconnected. It is most unnatural and most uncomfortable for these two and We must resist pulling them together.

Isabella cannot take it anymore, this thick, close tension she feels radiating off of the captivating boy standing next to her, so she flees. She mumbles something about fresh air under her breath, but not even Our ears pick up her words because they are just an excuse to escape _his _looming presence.

It's no good, though. The second she is out the door our Edward makes up his mind and follows after her without any sort of mumbled excuse for Alice and Jasper's behalf.

Oh how cruel it would be of me to keep you in the small room with Jasper and Alice.

So, let's go, Reader! Let's follow Edward out into the night, into his daring act of conversation.

We stand by the door once We exit, silent and still as if they could even see Us if they tried, and from here We watch such a wonderful thing unfold.

"You drop your pencil a lot," he says to her to break the ice, stepping up behind where she is standing and staring up at the stars.

He is not good at starting conversation and he hopes that she does not take offense to anything he says. How can he know the difference between offensive banter and casual joking? He never has casual converstation with anyone besides Emmett, who thinks that being playfully offensive is funny.

She draws her eyes reluctantly from the sky and looks at him, at his clothes and his hair and his arms and shoes, and she thinks immediately that she likes all of what she sees so much she will never be able to hide anything from him. Despite his bad attempt at keeping things light between them eveything int he air surrounding them feels heavy. Everything about him is too attractive to her and she wants to know all of it intimately.

She is no longer afraid, though. She is ready to speak. Seeing him here, in the friendly light of the moon, he is much more captivating than intimidating and she is relieved that he has said the very first words.

So now they have both decided to take this step towards each other together. They are both ready to change, ready to speak, ready to find out why the pencil burns.

"You drop your pencil a lot," he repeats, louder, afraid that her long silence and very apparent appraisal of him have something to do with her rejecting his attempt at conversation.

But no, We know better than that, and just as We wish her to, she responds.

"I push it off of my desk."

"Oh? For what purpose?"

Her eyes move to his. Of course he knows why she does it, just as We do. For the purpose of him and his attentions, most certainly.

She doesn't even have to speak it. Just as they can both feel the heat in the woods of pencil, they both feel the answer in her silence.

"For you, I guess," she replies quietly.

"Yes, well, that's a little absurd. You could have just said hello to me."

She scoffs.

"No, I couldn't have."

"I would have."

He is not lying. He thinks that in her position, in her life, he would have been able to speak more readily than he could while stuck in his own skin.

"But you didn't. You haven't," she points out.

"I have my reasons."

"I bet you do. And I bet I wouldn't think any of them are good."

Edward Masen laughs outright at that and the little something in him that wraps fondly around the letters of her name whenever he thinks it sighs in contentment.

Bella Swan notices that Edward looks much more beautiful when he laughs, in a lighter sort of way that his normal beauty.

Something has changed between them just now and We can all surely feel it, too. The first exchange has happened. It is not as scary as either of them made it to be in their imaginings and it's just the beginning of them truly knowing one another.

So far they both like what they have found in the other's voice.

So Edward takes a step closer to her and this makes Me gasp because I have watched him for much longer than You have and I know that Edward Anthony Masen never, ever takes a step closer to anyone.

His true smile appears on his face and this is rare, too.

"Hello, Bella Swan," he says soft, finally introducing himself, finally ridding their need of a pencil for them to have a connection.

"Why hello Edward."

Bella's answering smile is just as lovely and as inviting as everything else about her. The night is dark but this moment is bright and full of things that demand light. Edward is ready for this to be real. He is ready to take a risk and let her get closer than he thought he could. He knows that she could be the end of him but right now, right here, he is choosing not to care.

She does not know the risk he is taking for her but she knows that whatever they share is deep.

"Do you think they'll retell it correctly?" he asks quietly, as if they're sharing as secret.

"Retell what?"

"This moment. The first that we've met. It's going to be history, you know."

"How do you know?"

"We burn together, Bella. How can this not be something worth telling?"

With another dazzling smile he entrances her and she misses the motion of door behind Edward opening to reveal Emmett's large form because she cannot help but consumer her gaze with his because she agress with him.

And they are both right, aren't they, My Reader?

Because whenever there is a moment when an _Edward_ meets a _Bella_ there is always a_ Me_ that must tell it to_ You_ the grand story that will follow.

And, oh - this is true - we are still just beginning Ours!

* * *

**I made this story so my imagination could play so I hope we are all having fun :) I finished school for the summer just yesterday so updates should not be as hard to get out (hopefully!).**

**Always, always tell me what you're thinking. I definitely want to know.**

**LOVE YOUS!**

**-Car**


	5. Tensions

**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Tensions**_

**Chapter 5 - Part 1 - RPOV**

**"The Rosy Demeanor"**

_-*- In this small crowded room We find a perspective that's new -*-_

I want to strangle Emmett for thinking it was all right to bring all of these strangers to my family's cabin, but I cannot ever become _that_ mad at him, no matter how hard I try. So instead I punch him in the arm and threaten not to touch him for a month if he doesn't make everything feel better in about point two seconds.

He and Carlisle know that Esme and I aren't pleased with this surprise super-sized pow-wow and they both start spouting apologies the instant we step into the private room as we leave the four mystery guests waiting.

I stop in the middle of this room and turn to face Emmett while the other two continue to walk across the small space. The second Carlisle and Esme shut the door to the small room that is connected to this one (so that they may execute their own private confrontation) I produce a fire ball and shoot it at Emmett's head. That's how angry I am.

"Damn, woman, watch those things!" he whisper yells to me, and if I weren't so livid it'd be amusing because on Emmett that sound is louder than most people's speaking voice.

I produce another one and hold it in my hand as a threat. My anger feeds the flames and I can see them dancing in my hand even though I'm still glaring at the large man in front of me. The satisfaction of the heat it produces around me is overwhelming because I sort of feel safe and protected in it's warmth. Emmett looks a little less scared of me and my current wrath then I think he should.

"Who in the hell are all of those people?" I quietly demand as the flames leap up just a bit higher in my palm and gesture to the room we left all of the strangers waiting in.

"I don't know, Rosie-"

The flare of the fire growing in my hand cuts him off because I know he is lying. His eyes shoot to the flame and then back to my eyes and he looks a little more scared of me now. I instantly feel better.

"Ok, well, I know a few of them. Most of them are recognizable, at least. I didn't know they were _all_ going to be here, though, and I'm really sorry for that, babe. But if we go back in and don't make a fuss I can introduce you to them properly and we don't have to do all of... _this_."

He waves his big hands back and forth between our bodies and then gestures to the fire that I'm still holding. I want to believe that it could be just as easy as he said. That we can walk in that other room and meet some nice people and carry on with the evening. But nothing in me trusts them, or has any reason to. And he knows how I feel about new people.

I decide to throw one more ball of fire at him just so he knows this cannot ever happen again but before I can push the flame from my hand I feel Carlisle's presence start to enter the room and the flame distinguishes instantly.

Everything seems darker than it was before I produced the first ball of fire. And it's not because our eyes need to re-adjust to the darkened room. It's because I still can't trust the man that is Emmett's friend and Esme's... whatever he is to her... and it kills all four of us because I should be able to Compose in front of him but I still just can't. I hate feeling this weak.

Since I didn't really get a chance to hear Emmett out about this fiasco of a night I have to trust Esme's judgement on the situation and it becomes very clear very quickly that she's warmed up to the idea of more people being here to hear whatever she has to say.

Of course. That girl can talk about the Tower of the Sky all damn day if someone would let her, and now she's got seven someones desperate for her knowledge.

I give Esme a look that clearly states I'm not happy or comfortable or ok with any of this. She nods her head and smiles sadly at me, showing support but choosing to push me through this anyway.

"I'm sorry, Rose, but this really has been a huge misunderstanding. It seems that, um, the boys invited one or two others to come with them and word spread to a few more. Carlisle assures me he can account for the few people out there that Emmett might not know, and if what we think may be happening really is then we probably need all of them to be here anyway."

Her eyes are pleading with me to understand. I know how important this is to her and to Carlisle and most importantly to Emmett. I can feel it and see it in the way they're holding themselves tonight. I do not want to ruin whatever important thing is supposed to be going down but I can't help wanting to be a little selfish in a reaction to what my last three days have been like.

And I know that when she said that "the boys" invited a few extra people she actually meant that just Emmett did but they don't want him getting in any more trouble than he's already in with me. That boy seriously has too many people looking out for his well being sometimes.

"I do understand all of that, Es, I do. But you have to try and see where I'm coming from. I got caught producing fire the other night by a stanger that was creeping in my window and because of that the whole entire town shut down for three days. I'm on edge. I'm pissed and scared and I do not like being either of those things."

"Rosie, what are you talking about?" Emmett asks as he steps closer to me. "Perso was shut down because of _you_?"

"I don't really have time to tell you right now, Em, since it's rude to keep our guests waiting," I tell him in a clipped tone. "But, yes. Some creep saw me produce fire after I woke up from that strange dream I had. He got freaked out and reported it. He didn't see who I was so nothing has been done to me specifically but I can't stand the thought of someone I don't know being so close to me and gaining knowledge of my secret. He was so hidden, I didn't even feel him around since I was able to produce the fire in the first place."

I'm tembling at this point but instantly work to control it. I do not want to be this weak. Emmett's hand slips into mine and that helps me feel more balanced. He is strong enough for both of us, that's what he always says, and I appreciate that but I'm trying to work on getting him to understand why I need to build my own strength, too.

"Can we talk about this more before I leave tonight?" he asks me.

"If we have time, of course. You're the only person I wanted to discuss it with the second it all started happening."

"All right," Carlisle says softly but firmly, taking control of the room in an instant,"if that's good enough for you then, Rosalie, I think we should get started with the others."

I nod my consent and we decide to get the show on the road without further reprimand of the boys and I privately decide to kick Emmett in his junk the next time we're alone. I'm extremely uncomfortable with all of this, but what am I supposed to do when it's so important to the only important people in my life?

All I really want to do is sit down with Emmett and disect what happened to me three nights prior and get some of his perspective on it. I woke up suddenly in the night with the distinct feeling that something was different, off, and faint memories of a dream involving people I did not know and could barely remember anything about. Esme was being oddly tight lipped about her opinion on what I experienced and all of this made me irritable and nervous.

Immediately upon enteering back into the little room full of people I've never seen or met before my skin is crawling again. I hate that Emmett's hand leaves mine while he walks to the door to retrieve the small brown haired girl and the uptight looking pretty boy from where they were apparently talking outside because I feel very vounerable without my Shield's skin on mine.

For a second I hate how dependable I've become on him until I remember how free it actually makes me. Or, at least, how free it's _starting_ to make me.

Emmett gets back in with the other two following behind him. He looks smug for some reason and they both look like they are trying very hard to seem collected but I think that instead they both look more like they want to do jumping jacks or throw up or giggle. The brown haired girl is following swiftly and silently behind Emmett's large strides and wringing her hands. The bronze haired boy behind her, the uptight one, is staring a hole into the back of her head relentlessly and licking his lips. I wonder how they know each other because as they walk by the air around me fills with heat.

They stand side by side, close but not too close to each other, on the right side of Emmett who stands between them and me, on my right. Esme is on my left, Carlisle on her's. The tiny black haired girl that won't stand still and the blonde guy next to her are next to Carlisle. We are in an odd semi-circle that looks mismatched but complete at the same time. I don't like how I sort of want to know more about everyone in the room.

Emmett clears his throat and takes my hand in his again. I see the tall uptight boy's eyes shoot to our hands briefly before they make it to Emmett's face and I see a hint of question in them.

The gesture makes me think that this uptight boy must be the famous Edward Masen, Emmett's dark, sad, loner of a friend with the heart of gold. It's kind of nice to finally have a face to go with the name I've heard so many times though he clearly knew nothing of me before this night.

"So, hey guys, welcome to the Platt's cabin. I think you all know that I'm Emmett and I apologize for the, uh, awkwardness of all this. I guess I should have relayed the change in plans to the ladies, here, before we got this little party started. I didn't know so many of you were coming, though."

He laughs his signature goofy laugh and a bit of the tension leaves the room. I am very far from being relaxed in this situation, but there's no denying how good Emmett is for me in times like these so I decide to go with where ever the evening will take us because sometimes I feel like I can do anything now that I've found him.

And, honestly, how much can a handful of strangers really effect my life?

**Chapter 5 - Part 2 - BPOV**

_-*- Our sweet, sweet Swan provides you with things I cannot -*-_

Emmett's laugh breaks through a tiny bit of tension in the room. I remember it from the first day of my incorperation as Shield to Tower High and I'm glad I get to be in its presence again. The blonde bombshell attached to his hand doesn't look very amused by our presence but the sound of his booming chuckle seems to put her more at ease.

I can feel Edward standing next to me and behind Emmett's words I can still hear Edward's smooth voice speaking to me from just moments before. I replay the small conversation we had outside over and over in my head, just in the background of everything else, because my whole body is tingling in excitement in response to the heavy things he said to me.

_We burn together._

I pull myself together, though, when I hear Carlisle start to speak. This night could be entirely important to the rest of our lives - no, to the rest of the world - so I pull away from the instinct I have that tells me to give my full attention to the beautiful boy I'm becoming swiftly and completely obsessed with.

"I think it's best if we begin with some introductions, yes?" Carlisle begins, adressing the small circle of people with a pleasant smile that I know to be his genuine outlook on life. Everyone nods that his idea sounds good and he clears his throat a little before he speaks again. Jasper hops up and sits on top of the table he'd been leaning against and Alice follows his action though they aren't displaying any of the deep affection I know they have for each other. They can't though, I suppose, in this room of strangers.

"My name is Carlisle Cullen, for those of you who don't know. I am twenty one years old and this is my second term at the Tower High. I actually grew up here, in Perso, so the move to the school was not too hard for me."

He stops speaking and with a small nod of his head his attention turns to his left, looking at Jasper with the clear expectation of him to go next.

Instead Jasper pulls a flask out of his back pocket, and while he twists the little metal top off of it he says, "What Classification are you?"

Carlisle looks a little taken aback by his actions and I can only imagine that everyone else in our little gathering is shocked except for Alice who knows this man inside and out.

I surpress a smile because I think that I already really really like what Jasper Whitlock brings to life.

"Um, I'm a Toucher," Carlisle responds, still visibly distracted with the flask that Jasper has now raised to his lips. Ever the polite gentleman, Carlisle composes himself and smiles kindly at Jasper, wiping any trace of shock or disapproval from his face.

Aside from Carlisle's odd ability to want to accept every human being as decent, I'm sure his quick change in judgement has a bit to do with Jasper's status. We are all aware that he is a full Remarkable and we are not. Even when he's the one sitting on top of a table taking shots from a flask in the middle of a poorly lit stanger's cabin.

"No Sub Class?" Jasper speaks again, earning a head shake from Carlisle in the negatory. "All right. What are your abilities as a Toucher?"

"I heal people. I take in their pain as my own for the time I'm touching them but once that passes they are as good as new."

"You've had practice with this before?"

"Yes, a few times."

"What has been your most intense healing?" Jasper's leaning in towards Calrisle slightly now and the whole room is dialed into their verbal ping pong match. Carlisle doesn't look annoyed with the rapid fire questioning, instead he seems quite prideful of his chance to share his ability.

"My Incident is still, to this day, my most intense experience. I healed a broken spine."

"Oh, that is intense," Jasper agrees, nodding to a newly tense Carlisle as he takes another swig from the flask. " And is this the girl you healed?" he askes, gesturing briefly to the kind looking woman standing in between Carlisle and the gorgeous blonde.

Calisle clears his throat again and glances at the woman next to him.

"Yes," he says calmly and with more pride. "This is Emse Platt and we met when we were just children. I was eleven, to be exact. She was injured and I found her lying helpless and scared. Though I was frightfully scared as well, my instincts kicked in and I healed her on the spot, working from nothing but what my instinct told me to do."

Jasper nodded in silent approval and I glanced around the room to gauge everyone else's reactions. Most people were intent on looking at Carlisle, soaking in his story.

Edward was glancing at me every few seconds and I tried not to smile very widely because I caught him doing it.

"I guess it's on to me, then," Jasper announced after a few seconds passed. His feet swung carelessly below him as they dangled off the edge of the table he was perched on. His boots were worn in and the dark blue flannel button up shirt he wore was worn down and comfortable looking. I knew he was a Professor at our school but I could not do anything in my mind to reconcile him with Aro or any of the others I'd seen during my time there in the past week. He was interesting and familiar and mysterious all at the same time.

"Let's see, I'll try and follow the same formate as Cullen did... I'm Jasper Whitlock. I'm twenty four and most of you probably know that I'm a full Remarkable. It's fairly recent that I've held that status, but I've been living at Tower High for five years now so I'm overtly familiar with life there. I'm a Gateway with no Sub Class and I'm the strongest one the Tower community has ever seen. My specific ability as a Gateway is the ability to manipulate feeling. I can feel everything all of you are feeling right now and, if I wished it, I could push an entirely different one upon you."

"Individually or on the room as a whole?" Edward asks.

"Whichever I choose."

Jasper is casual and confident while he speaks. I can feel his full Remarkability surrounding him, but it feels different than the other Remarkability I've been exposed to around the school. His Class ability has surprised me and intrigued me and it was in this moment I started to really feel excited about what we were doing on this night.

"Is that how you knew to ask Carlisle about Esme?" I ask, curiosity getting the best of me.

"Yes it is. I can feel their connection. And the way she reacted to his retelling of his Incident of a dead give away. She felt nostalgic. Grateful. Full of love with whispers of the memory of the pain from that day."

Esme looks at Jasper with wide, confounded eyes, and I'm positive that we all feel the same as she. It's dangerous and odd having someone around who can feel your pull towards another human being. I instantly worry over what Jasper feels between Edward and I, and whether or not he's going to call us out on it.

"What was your Incident?" Edward asks from beside me, sending a chill up my spine just at the return of the sound of his voice to my ears. I wonder if he's thinking the same thing I am about Jasper invading whatever's going on between us and if this is his attempt at distracting him from voicing it.

"My little sister died when I was eleven. She was hit by a car. It devestated my family as a whole, of course, by my reaction was extremely extreme. I did not know that it was my Class developing so I ran away to try and avoid the pain of staying in Texas, where I am from. I soon found that I was feeling extreme emotions everywhere, not only around my grieving family, and eventually I figured out what was going on."

"How did you end up at Tower High if you fled your hometown?" Carlisle asked.

"Aro found me somewhere around Denver by the time I was twelve and explained everything to me. He said he'd been chasing me for almost an entire year. Since I was very young and on my own he offered early housing for me around the Tower High grounds, but I declined. I wasn't ready to stop running. Aro understood that about me and encouraged me to learn about what being a Remarkable meant on my own as best I could before it was time for me to attend the school. Not that he didn't conveniently pop into my life over the years before I began my first term every now and then."

He smirked and I thought that the motion slid far too easily onto his face. It fit him though, this look of mischief and playfullness.

It was odd to be in this small room listening to a full Remarkable's story like this, but it was so hard to fit Jasper in the same category as the other seemingly stuffy men and women that walked the halls of Tower High as professors and mentors.

"Enough about me, though," he drawls casually as he reassumes his affair with the silver flask, "miss Alice here has a bit of her story to tell you, too."

All eyes moved to her small frame, waiting for her to begin.

"Yes, hello! I'm Alice Brandon. I'm eighteen and I'm a Breacher. My Sub Class is Gateway. I can see the future in the form of visions that I can summon at any time I choose. I normally only see things that effect me and my life, but once I've formally met someone I can then check into their future as well, should I chose to do so. I normally don't unless people ask, so no one in here needs to worry about their privacy when it comes to me."

Little Alice stops speaking and smiles around the room, brightening it. She takes an extra milisecond as her eyes pass over mine to wink playfully. I smile back and note that her and Jasper's legs are now swining back and forth at exactly the same rhythm, as if no matter where they are they manage to fall into some form of connection.

"That explains your Breacher Class, Alice. Where does your Gateway come in?" Edward asks, sounding a bit puzzled.

"Oh, yeah, sorry! I can show people visions of their future, as well. It transfers in the form of a dream. Also, if I choose to be malicious, I can manipulate what they see as I transfer it to them. But if I'm going to manipulate it then I have to be touching something that they own. Otherwise I can only send them the true vision. It's complicated and odd, I know. I don't practice my Gateway capabilities very often, at all. But Aro's pushing me to develop them as more and more."

Edward nods his head in approval and the rest of us (save for Jasper Whitlock) manage to look a _little_ less than majorly surprised at all of the power that seems to be wrapped up in tiny little Alice.

"So, how did you get to the Tower High?" Esme asks.

"Actually, there hasn't really been a time when I wasn't at Tower High. At least not that I can remember."

"What?" Emmett asks loudly, sounding on alert.

"I don't know where I came from. Aro's had me since I was a baby. I was left on his porch, tiny and helpless, and he took me into his family here at school. Of course _The Arrow_ couldn't take in a child as his very own, but his sister and brother in law adopted me. I grew up with them as my parents in the outter housing areas. Around the time that I was eleven they really started to explain to me what the world of the Tower was all about. Until then I though that all of what I saw was normal. Supernatural abilities have never _not_ been a part of my life, so none of them alarmed me. A very horrible thing happened to my mother, Aro's sister, when I was eleven, but I cannot discuss that now. Aro asks me not to speak of it, ever, but it is my Incident and someday I know you'll all hear the story. Just not tonight. I can't."

Alice shrugs it all off as if she's just told us the weather report and amazes us all with her interesting life story all at the same time. I do not understand how such fascinating people can be hidden all over the world when so many others suffer from such dull lives.

The tension in the room has dissipated by this point and I'm so glad that it has. I'm starting to feel like we have something real here, real Remarkables with real potential for this group to be something special. Before I have too much of a chance to get excited about that, though, Alice is looking at me and annoucing that it's my turn to introduce myself.

Of course every member of the group turns their expectant stares to me. They all feel like comfortable gazes on my skin except for the one that burns.

Edward is the closest to me and he's got no reason not to give me his full attention now... and I almost combust with the heat of it all. I want him to be looking at me. I want his attention, always, I figured that out as we spoke outside. I'm not sure how to act normal while I can feel his eyes on me, though.

I try anyway.

"I'm Isabella Swan but I normally go by just Bella. I like it better. Usually. I am eighteen as well. My first Classification is Shield and it should be pretty obvious that I'm a mind Shield."

I sort of point to Emmett and laugh at my own comment, earning at least a chuckle or a small smile from everyone in the room. The blonde at Emmett's side looks even more alluring with a pleasant expression on her face, I notice. While I've never had the lowest self esteem this woman is the epitome of beautiful and I wonder how she isn't a Remarkable because she certainly makes me feel plain in her presence.

"I do have a Sub Class," I continue, looking away from the beauty and back towards the group but not at Edward who's eyes are still heating me up, "I'm also a Composer, though it's not too developed yet. I can create a shield around other people, but not just their minds. It's almost physical, but I'm not using my body to create it, so it's still considered in the mind category."

"You can project your shield?" Edward asks in the tone of something that sounds like amazement. It makes me feel good, instantly, that he sounds impressed by something I can do, even though I just admitted that I cannot yet to it well.

I bite my lip and look up at him, directly up at him, channeling all of my urges to jump him into the teeth on my flesh. I nod demurely and try not to scream, _"Yes I can! Run away with me because I'm impressive!"_

"I can project more, too," I admit, telling him directly before making sure I address all of the others, too. "While someone is in my shield I can project things that I want them to see. It's not like Alice, not a prophecy of thier future, just a quick image."

"I've never heard of that happening before," he breathes quietly, intensly, and I see his eyes dart down to my lip.

"Projecting a shield is rare, but not completely unheard of," Emmett interjects, breaking the small bit of tension building between our gazes, "Though no one's ever really been able to project a shield in the way Bella can. Alec is in awe of her, though the smug bastard won't ever admit it. The handfull of mind Shields that have been able to project in the past were never able to shield from anything physical, only mental. Bella's a first since the shield she projects with her mind can also protect someone from physical harm. You add her image projection on top of that and - forget about it - she's leagues away from anything this school's Shield division has ever seen."

Looking around the room, I see them all appraising me the same way I'd been appraising Carlisle, and Jasper, and Alice. As a fellow Remarkable revealing their talents. An equal. Someone to be revered. It feels nice to fit in with other's who have shared their stories and talents, but nothing compares to how I feel when I see that Edward Masen isn't only appraising me, but smiling in a way that means he likes what he's finding.

"So how did you get here?" he asks.

"Most of you know that this is my first term at Tower High. I grew up in Forks, Washington. It's a tiny, normal, boring town and I've always hated almost everything about it. My family was normal growing up, which bored me sometimes, I suppose, but fulfilled me in all the ways a little girl needs to be fulfilled. Shortly after I turned eleven my parents divorced. My father went into a deep depression about it and in an effort to alleviate both of our pain I wished and wished for him to feel better and for things to be the way they were with our family as a whole. Unfortunately my timing was awful and I had my first stab at my Remarkability while my dad was driving."

"Oh no, Bella," Alice gasps, her hand coming to rest over her mouth in shock and sympathy. I still haven't told Alice my complete story and I see now that she really cares about me, about what I've gone through in the past and the pain from then that I'm still vounerable to.

"Yeah, uh, my father saw the image of him and my mother together that I unknowingly projected and he swerved while we were on the highway. The resulting accident was extreme. My father almost died and has never been the same physically or emotionally since. Aro came to visit me while my dad was still in the hospital recovering. He told me of my abilities and of the Tower High. I took it all very seriously and began counting down the days until I could be here. I didn't want to be in Forks anymore with my broken father, but I couldn't leave leave him before it was truly necessary either. As hard as it's been, I like this life, I like being something more than normal, and I think I've moved on from my Incident so I'm only focused on the future."

I end my story with a final nod and turn my attention to Edward. He's still staring at me and smiling encouragingly. He does this for a second longer than is completely comfortable then turns his head to take his turn at introducing himself. I am ecstatic over my new excuse to indulge in just looking at him for the next few minutes.

"Most people around school know me as Edward Anthony Masen. I normally just go by Edward, though Emmett refuses to put in even that much effort and calls me Eddie."

A few of us chuckle but I don't check the blonde to see if she cracked another smile because I like the way Edward looks lighter when he laughs. I didn't expect him to be funny so this is wonderful for me to find out, even if it is a remedial joke.

"Please, do not follow his example, no matter how much money or food he offers you. I hate that name."

Emmett reaches over pretends to punch Edward in the arm playfully, though he never really makes contact with him, and I think I can be sure that everyone in the room made some sort of laughing noise at their small exchange. I find it odd that these completely opposite boys seems to have such a bond, but I like it. It reminds me of what I think I'm finding in my friendship with Alice.

"I am twenty one years old and this will be my second term at the Tower High. There's not much to tell about my past. I grew up in Chicago. My parents died when I was eleven. They died together, how they would have liked it, and after that I was one my own. My family is extremely well off so I was taken care of before and after they passed away, at least in every material way. Their sudden passing took a toll on me, clearly, which no doubt triggered my abilities. I've never really had a hard life, though. Just a very secluded one."

I feel more and more surprised by the way he speaks about his past with every word that leaves his mouth. He sounds entirely unattached from the situation, from his loss. He is resloved in his declaration of solitute and it's saddening and maddening at the same time. I obvously don't know much about him but I know that this cold version of him was not who was speaking to me outside.

"You haven't mentioned your Class," Jasper points out.

"I'm a Gateway, a Breacher, and a Composer."

Everything stops. And I mean everything.

I think that the even breeze outside has stilled in shock.

"Aro never told me that," Jasper mumbles under his breath across the room.

I can't help but tear my eyes away from Edward's confident expression and take stock of the rest of the room.

Jasper seems to have put the flask away and now looks slightly ruffled over something, I'm assuming the details of his last comment about Aro not disclosing information about Edward to him. Alice, Carlisle, Esme, and the model blonde look exactly like I feel. In disbelief. Emmett looks concerned.

"You have _three_ Classifications?" Alice finally says, loud and shrill in the small room.

"That's unheard of," Carlisle adds on, maybe even mostly to himself.

Edward shifts his footing and glances down at the ground and then to me before he clears his throat and begins speaking again. Everyone is absolutely listening intently.

"Yes, as far as anyone knows I'm the only Remarkable to ever hold three Classifications. Aro and I have both decided to keep it somewhat off the radar of everyone, since it clearly is a shock and causes some complications in how I'm percieved."

"Well I'm thrilled to know you, man," Jasper says with a breathy laugh. "And now I understand why Aro's so damn protective of you. You're like his crown jewel."

Edward smiles across the room at him in thanks and perhaps a little bit of humility and the silent tensionbegins to slip away once again as everyone relaxes back into a more casual tone.

"What are you specifics?" I ask timidly.

Suddenly he's even _more_ than I knew him to be before. Not just a beautiful, mysterious boy, but a Remarkable unheard of before our time.

"My Gateway capability allows me to enter into other's minds and see what they see, as if I'm looking through their eyes. My Breacher specifics allow me to hear people's thoughts. This is my strongest trait but my first Classification is still Gateway since I actively need to enter into and interact with other people's privacy to obtain their thoughts. On top of that I can Compose lightening."

"No way," Alice exclaims softly, in awe, definitely reacting to his last statement.

"It's so cool. He's only shown me once but it's intense. You guys are going to flip out when you get a chance to see it," Emmett boasts.

An uncomfortable mumble spreads through the room. We all agree that it will probably be intense and it's very clear that ninety percent of us are still trying to process what Edward has disclosed about himself. I can tell that there is so much more to him than his remarkale Remarkability traits, but this is what he's shared with us tonight and this is all I can focus on at the moment.

He's so much more than I imagined.

And the pencil only burns when we _both_ touch it.

What the hell am I supposed to think of _that_?

I do not have time to figure it out because Emmett begins speaking about himself and I do not want to miss anything anyone has to say.

So I ingore the feeling of Edward's gaze and stare past him to his giant friend.

"All right, you all know that I'm Emmett McCarty. I'm twenty two years old, I like to eat everything except for cheese, and I do not shoot lightening out of my fingertips or anything freaky like that."

Edward and Emmett share a knowing look between them that speaks of teasing friendship and Edward rolls his eyes.

"I'm a physical Shield of the purest kind. I don't have a Sub Class or anything, I'm just a straight shooter. My strength is my weapon and my talent. I'm the strongest Shield the Tower has had, ever, and I take pride in that. This is my second term but like little Miss Alice over there, I have also been around much longer than that, which is probably why they let me help out with a lot more around the grounds. I have no memory of anything that happened to be before I was eleven, so unfortunately I will not be entertaining you all with tales of a smaller, much more innocent Emmett. I have no idea where I came from or how I got here. All I know is that whoever dropped me off at this place knew that this is where I belonged. Aro had that confirmed not too long after my appearance here when I crushed all of Alec's strength tests at the age of twelve. I've been running around making this place a lot more fun ever since."

My smile is joined by many others around the room because that is just one's natural reaction to Emmett. His speach is happy and loud and his words sure and true.

Things around the room have been shifting naturally from person to person around our little circle, so when all of our eyes turn to the blonde at Emmett's side in anticipation of her introduction, the silence that follows feels odd. It goes on for a beat too long and a thin layer of tension creeps back into the room. I fidget with my fingers and stare at Edward's hands, wondering what they feel like.

Emmett finally clears his throat and says, "This is Rosalie."

Those three simple words brake the silence and whatever silent spell this Rosalie was under. She glances up at Emmett with an expression that looks blank but it seems to speak volumes to him. He actually looks sort of small for a moment.

She flips her long hair over her shoulder and straightens her posture, standing a bit taller as she opens her mouth to speak.

I want to hate her for being so pretty and being in the same room as Edward. But I also want love her for being attached to Emmett's hand and therefore not available. I'm ecstatic that her alluring presence isn't keeping Edward from glancing at me every so often even though she is so darn pretty.

"Yes, I'm Rosalie Hale. I'm twenty years old and I'm sure it's very clear that I do not attend school with all of you. I live here in Perso with Esme and her family. She's my cousin. We were both born far away from here but when she decided to move here a few years back I came with her."

Her words were short and precise, as if she had been practicing them in her head the whole time everyone else was speaking. A smile graced her face and I liked it a lot even though it felt like it was missing something.

"How do you know Emmett?" Jasper asks with a mischievious glint in his eye.

"Through Esme and Carlisle," she replies back with no hint of intimidation. Her eyes change as she speaks directly to him, though. A small harndess takes over.

"Ah. And how do Esme and Carlisle know each other? Now that is. We've heard of the childhood interaction," Jasper pushes on, turning his playfull questioning to the couple standing to the left of Rosalie.

This is one of the biggest qurestions in the room, I think, since it's virtually unheard of for residents of Tower High to have any sort of relationship outside of the Tower community.

"As I said, we met when we were eleven and I saved her life," Carlisle replies calmly. Politely.

"He's the reason I came back here," Esme adds quickly, apparently choosing to be bold and brave. It looks a little bit out of character for her, I think. Not like she cannot exude either of these characteristics, but more like she hasn't had to in a very long while and may now need to dust them off a bit before feeling comfortable in them once again.

"That's lovely," Alice beams.

"Yes, well, we had a very strong connection the day that we first met, even if we were children. When she came back we were brought together once again and she's become extremely important to me. I've been making regular visits to the city to see her. One night Emmett followed me out of school-"

"I knew he'd been sneaking out and was kind of mad I hadn't started doing it myself."

"Right, he thought I was doing something far more exciting than I was, though. I just couldn't convince him that I wasn't doing anything illegal or scandalous. He threatened to tattle on me unless I agreed to bring him along and prove that I wasn't up to anything ravy. I did not know that Esme would also be bringing Rosalie with her that evening."

"The rest is history!" Emmett finishes for Carlisle. He has a big smile on his face that is contagious and even the cold looking Rosalie warms up a bit at the retelling of this story.

"And we've been over this, dude, you cannot say things like 'tattled'. I swear sometimes you get your vocabular from elves."

Eveyone laughs together again and it feels easy to break through the layers of tension that keep trying to saunter in. Edward mentions something about how he also finds some of Carlisle's word choices peculiar and I laugh along with the room at his admission but I'm really only concentrating on how his lips look when he speaks.

When he glances at me and holds my gaze I loose it and my skin starts to pull towards his. Before I can do anything real about that sensation, though, Esme begins to speak.

"I guess that leaves me, even though Carlisle has kind of already introduced me. My name is Esme Platt. I'm also not a member of the Tower Community, officially, but I've been deeply interested in it ever since my experience with Carlisle when I was ten. I'm twenty years old now, so I've been studying your world for the past decade. And that's exactly why you are all here tonight, isn't it?"

Jasper grunts an "uh-huh", Alice nods her head enthusiastically, Edward and I nod less enthusiastically, Emmett give a "hell yes", and both Rosalie and Carlisle remain responseless.

This is it. The beginning of our maybe-answers. This is the first time we are going to address the real reason we have all gathered tonight.

She takes a deep breath in and glances around the room, I'm assuming to make sure she has all of our full attentions. It's pointless to check because she undoutbedly does. Even Jasper who has been squirming relentlessly up until this point is practically still, the only movement now coming from his right index finger tapping against his worn jeans.

"I've had a lot of correspondence with Carlisle this past week and I have great reason to believe that what you all experienced the other night, the odd dreams and the sudden waking, was the Tower of the Sky calling you to be on The List."

Even though we all came to this room with this assumption the air around us seems to get sucked dry as the words fall from her lips. These are big words. These are life changing assumptions. This is exciting.

"That's what I thought, too," Jasper says after a second of recovery is allowed. "I've studied it a lot in my time at Tower High because I've been convinced I'm going to be on The List since I got here. I knew that an awakening of sorts was supposed to happen. I expected to the feeling of change and the fuzzy vision of all your faces. What I didn't expect, and I mean no disrespect here, people, I'm just being honest... is for everyone else to be so young."

"We aren't that much younger than you," Emmett argues.

"You're right, that came out wrong. What I meant is that I wasn't expecting the rest of The List to be so _inexperienced_."

Jasper's correction isn't any more comforting than his previous statement, it's actually more insulting, but none of us can really argue because he's entirely right. We are all pretty young and inexperienced.

"You _are_ the only full Remarkable on The List," Carlisle sighs.

"If that's even what this is," Edward interjects.

"Of course that is what this is. Back me up Scholar," Jasper chuckles and says to Esme. "This is your shin-dig after all."

"It's true, Edward, there's really nothing else that can explain what happened. Every prophecy of The List depicts a night where every member experiences a brief flash of the other members and then an odd waking sensation. It's how the Tower alerts you to your life change. You have to feel odd... feel jolted in order for you to know that you are the Remarkables chosen for the tasks that the Tower has for you."

"Does that sound like what everyone here experienced?" Emmett asks the room.

Everyone nods in turn and everything feels heavy again. There's a very small posibility we are wrong about this and it's finally starting to feel real. Scary and real.

"So what do we do now?" I ask.

"The only thing you can do is wait, I think," Esme replies with an apologetic smile. "Surely The Arrow will put things into motion for you when it's time. The Calling does seem to have come a bit early for all of you. Every prophecy of The List has assumed that eveyone called would be a Full Remarkable but it was never a certainty, just an assumption. And who knows? Maybe it will take years before you even have to do anything. Maybe you are meant to be called early so that you call complete your training with the knowledge of your placement on The List."

"Maybe. But doubtful," Jasper says, turning our attention back to him. "The whole point of awakening The List together so suddenly is to get our blood going. It's done that way so we have this excitement that we're all feeling here, tonight, flowing through us as it all begins. Whatever we are going to be called to do, it's going to be big and we are going to need adrenaline to do it. Waiting around for years and years doesn't make sense. I'd say you should start packing your bags, kids."

"Unless something else will happen in the future to push you into action once again," Esme argues back before I have an adequate amount of time to start panicking.

"I suppose."

Jasper shrugs it all off and goes back to swinging his feet. I don't know what to say or do so I'm grateful when the silence is broken by a small ringing sound.

"Oh crap," Jasper mumbles as he digs in his back pocket. He pulls out a small cell phone and flips it open with a smirk. "They figured us out, did they?"

We all watch as he has a very short conversation with someone on the other line and then hangs up and jumps off the table.

"Sorry kiddies, our little meet and greet is over. That was Caius. He's none to pleased with our midnight escapade and he's demanding our return to the school right now."

His words are easy and it's confusing because it's not hard to feel how tense the rest of us got at the mention of Caius. We are all students who would like not to get expelled and sneaking off grounds in the middle of the night is definitely not something that the school is ok with.

"Don't worry, you're all under my watch and Aro surely doesn't want any of you getting kicked out any time soon thanks to this List business, so no one is getting reprimanded when we get back. I did promise them that you'd all go straight to bed when we get back, though, so do me a favor and make that happen."

There is a disappointment in the room that is unavoidable, despite the relief at the assured safety from expulsion. We got so little time together, it seems, to take this in and make it feel like anything got accomplished. Sure, I met everyone and can start to process what they will come to mean to me, but it doesn't feel like enough. I want to grasp at all of these moments and examine them, make sure I really understand, but they are falling away all around me and I can't do anything but follow Alice out of the door of the cabin as everyone shuffles out.

"I'm sorry we don't have more time tonight," Esme says sincerely. "This was a bit odd since we've all just met, but perhaps we can set up another time to meet and discuss any questions or concerns you all have. I'd love to be a part of your preparation in any way possible."

She sounds so honest and true when she speaks, I almost can't handle it. I can see how Carlisle feels so deeply for her, they are both made of love and compassion.

Jasper nods his head in approval and we all agree to make another meeting time next week. Then we set off over the hill that separates the school from this city and somehow I find myself walking next to Edward a good ten feet behind everyone else.

I think that the air between us is electric because it feels more and more charged the farther away we get from everyone else.

"Do you feel that," I ask him in a near whisper, afraid that my silly head is making me feel more for him than I should.

"Yes."

His answer relieves me but I'm still on edge because there is really no way for anyone to prepare themselves for things like this. Something between us grows even heavier and I can hardly take being this silently, calmly, overwhelmed.

"I really hope it doesn't stay this tense between us," he says in his unique velvet tone.

"Same here."

"It's going to make it rather difficult to spend so much time together."

Hold up. _So much time? Together?_

We walk a few steps further before I have the courage to speak again.

"Are we going to be spending a lot of time together?"

The words leave my mouth and I hate them because I think they sound stupid. I look up at him to see how stupid he thinks I sound but he's not laughing at me. He's staring at our moving feet and burrying his hands in his pockets.

"Yes, what with all of these List revelations and such... I only assume we'll be in these meetings quite often. And if it's all true, as I'm starting to seriously suspect it is, we're all going to be required to get to know one another pretty well."

"Oh, right, of course," I reply with a small laugh and a not so small reprimand of my silly, girly assumptions about he and I spending time together alone, "the meetings will be important. As will the group getting to know each other. You're definitely right."

We are very close to the walls of the school now and Jasper has already reached the entrance door. He's holding it open for Alice who is clearly waiting for me to walk back to the girl's dormitories with her.

As Edward and I take our final few steps towards the others, the last ones that will allow us any privacy from their ears, I feel him lean into me just a bit and my whole body responds to his new closeness.

"Of course, you and I will require some private time together, I think, as well. We still have to figure out where that burning is coming from. Goodnight Bella."

He takes off in the oposite direction with Emmett and Carlisle, leaving me breathless and in a small daze as I approach Alice.

The whole time I walk with her back to my room all I can think about are the words "private time" falling from Edward's lips and the heat of his breath that hit my skin as he spoke them.

Perhaps my assumptions weren't off at all. And perhaps I should start getting used to being this tense.

* * *

**I do not believe in "filler chapters" but I suppose this chapter is something of the sort if I have to label it. Of course it's entirely necessary and important to the story, but I understand that it's not the most exciting.**

**Anyway, more action and adventure and answers are immediately ahead, as well as MORE BELLA AND EDWARD TIME (my fav!) I promise :) **

**Thank you so much for continuing to read. Drop me a line and remember: I LOVE YOUS!**

**-Car**


	6. Lies

**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Lies**_

**Chapter 6 - Part 1 - BPOV **

**"The Honest Truth"**

As I walk with Edward down the hall towards our sixth hour class I can only manage to think one thing: _I am not good enough._

For him, specifically.

Because that's how I've honestly come to feel.

He's revealed himself to be so much more marvelous than I thought he could be, and it's getting to me.

He walks next to me now, unaware of my plummeting self esteem.

We pass Jasper and he does not aknowledge us. He cannot. Neither of us are in any of Professor Whitlock's classes, so addressing him in the hallway would be odd so we just don't despite our secret connection to being on The List with him.

I do manage to spot a frown that pops up on his face as we pass him and he catches my eye for one quick second. The deep blue iris that he shoots at me holds concern because surely he can feel what I'm feeling right now and it's clear that he disapproves of how horribly I'm handing my insecurity.

But I can't help it.

How could I ever be smart enough, or pretty enough, or unique enough for the boy that can shoot lightening from his bare hands?

I am Remarkable. I know this. But we are surrounded by Remarkable people every day here at this school so it becomes extremely easy to start to feel normal again.

What separates _me_ from _them_ in _his _mind?

Or, rather, what _could_?

I feel inadequate and frustrated with myself for letting myself feel this way and for letting these thoughts plague and distract me. It's been one week since our meeting at the Platt's cabin and very few, but very signifigant things, have changed.

Our sixth hour professor still hasn't been to class yet, but we're told he will be there today. We've also been told that he is Professor Aro: _The Arrow_. He's the leader of this entire school and the prohesized Leader of The List, according to the latest information ridden meeting we all had with Esme just last night. I wonder if Aro knows that we all know we have been called, and what that will mean in just a few moments when we enter the classroom and come face to face with him in a room full of unknowing students.

One of the only other things that has changed is that Edward now finds me and walks with me to our sixth hour class every day. Even when I take a different route than normal to our class, he's there, appearing from thin air at my side and stepping into stride with me casually. We barely speak to each other as we walk most days, I no longer push my pencil off of my desk so I haven't felt the burn in three days (three days ago I honestly accidentially knocked it off, though Edward refuses to believe it wasn't on purpose just "for old time's sake"), and a ton of other students have noticed my new companionship with him and have found time to warn me about his "difficult" personality.

Jessica Stanley, a sort of bland but very nice Remarkable who is a Breacher that can identify what any one person's favorite thing in the world is, has been the leader of this "Protect Bella from the Cold, Mysterious, Allusive Edward Masen" campaign. I know she means well but I cannot honestly see us ever being true friends because we clearly don't see eye to eye on anything. I worry about why she is so insitent on changing my mind about Edward. I wonder if it has to do with what or _who_ she sees when she looks into my life to identify what it is that makes me happiest. Maybe she's not malicious, just protective of people who are in too deep too quickly.

I ignore everything they all have to say to me and want to discount them all as lies because I see nothing unpleasant about him, but it puts me on edge about the possibility of what _he_ isn't showing me that they all seem to know about.

As I said, we hardly speak as we walk together, so it's very clear that I still don't know anything real about him outside of his Remarkability specifics.

Small talk fills the silence during our journey from the dining hall to the classroom on this day, just the same as all of the others before it. He's always polite but that's made him quite reserved and I think I'd rather have him unpolite and free than held up in this quiet, strict manner.

I want to hear the way his voice drops when he speaks about us burning together but I'm too afraid to bring it up myself in order to hear him speak of it again as well.

Every time he's near me I can only see how charming and handsome and desirable he really is, or, rather, really_ was_ the first few times I spoke to him.

We pass Alice now and she waves at us happily. She does not _feel_ things like Jasper does so she sees all of this sudden hault in intensity between Edward and I as baby steps towards the relationship that she knows I truly desire with Edward. She cannot literally share in my slow destruction like her secret love can. She thinks that I need to be patient with Edward, that he does see something special in me and that he looks like he's hungry when he stares at me across a room so a few days or weeks of him not jumping my bones doesn't mean anything negative.

I wave back at her as Edward tells me something about the new notebook he had to purchase yesterday, and I'm smiling largely at her as well but it's all an act because I tell her that I believe her view on all of this Edward taking-his-time business but I really don't.

I'm falling apart inside. I cannot get a grip on the girl that I thought I was, the girl that I think I still am when he is not in the same room as me.

When he is around me I feel like I'm a million miles away from him, at least from the part of him I think he was trying to give to me last week when we very first spoke. I wonder constantly if I did anything to make him pull back, if maybe he woke up one day and remembered that he is fantastic and shouldn't be spending his time leading on a first term student locked in a silly little crush. What if he's simply remaining cordial to me because we know we are on The List together and that means that we must mean something to each other?

But if that's true then what the hell is with the burning pencil?

I shake my head as we turn the corner and sigh. I need to get a grip. This is not me, not how I act, and the insecurity is absurd and pointless.

Because, to further my insanity, despite this impending not-enoughness that I feel whenever I think about the impossible possiblity of him seeing me as something more, I cannot let it stop me from trying to get him to see me as just that. I want him more than I want to hide all of my flaws from him. I like him much more than I hate these things about myself.

But finding the balance is hard and I'm constantly frustrated and confused.

We enter into the calssroom in silence and he steps aside so that I can walk down the aisle towards our desks in the back of the room ahead of him. The tall, dark, mysterious man with the black eyes that is standing at the front of the room arranging papers on the podium is the only thing that keeps me from ripping a scream of frustration through the room because I can hardly take these small, quiet, gentlemanly ways from Edward any longer but I cannot have a breakdown in front of Aro: The Arrow.

If I weren't one hundred percent sure that the man arranging papers was a very important one I would have let myself snap and shown Edward how much hotter my patience is burning than the silly pencil ever has.

**Chapter 6 - Part 2 **

_-*- Slipping into sixth to take peak, just a peak -*-_

Keep moving, Dear Reader, to the very back of the room. Our steps our silent and quick because We are very nearly late!

Sixth hour is about to start and I know how very tempting it is to stop and peer closely at our Edward and our Bella, and no doubt our very well mannered Carlisle as well, but we must move behind them in order to See it all.

These seats are large and wooden and we stand behind them, out of the way but still just close enough to our Characters to really be a part of their interactions.

They are more alert than we have found them to be in this room all of the days before this one. Because normally - as normally as things get around the Tower High - Aro is not among them.

Finally, however, finally, Dear Reader, he and I are both pleased to be here today, with these students, and with You, and no doubt with the three in the back that we are all concentrated on just a bit more than the rest.

We can see now how Edward and Bella settle in. They look _off_, don't they? As if someone has offset just one hair or placed one too many threads into their clothing, weighing them down and encasing thier freedoms just a tiny, tiny bit.

Bella's mind, as we know, is preoccupied with thoughts of our bronze boy. She is worried and troubled over his affections (or lack thereof) towards her and it's almost exciting to see how very much he is under her skin, isn't it?

Don't get me wrong my Dear Reader! I do not wish her this discomfort out of malice. But it is true, isn't it? - that one can only truly know that they are alive when they feel so many things, good and bad, concerning another.

If We look closely at Edward we can See things that she cannot, as well. He is not so sure of himself as he scribbles in his journal quickly, soaking up the time he has before Aro: The Arrow takes the attentions of everyone in the room and holds them in his palm.

Look with me now Reader - do not get shy on me now! - and let's reach our eyes over Edward's shoulder for a small glance at his paper, just to get confirmation of what it is We think We already know.

Oh, yes! There it is. The evidence of his own private condemnation...

_Why can I not find myself around her anymore, just as I seemed to be able to that first night in Perso? I must tell her the truth, get it out of the way, so that she will know how hopeless I am and will not hold onto the false hope I have allowed to settle into her eyes. I will tell her - I have to - today. Tonight. I will tell her of the real me and she can decide for herself if I am worth her ti-_

"Attention, please, class."

We cannot intrude on the rest of Edward's written thoughts, for he has shut his journal and turned his eyes towards the front of the class.

The room has gone silent and no matter what any distractions these fine students have walked in with, they are all forgotten for the time being. They all know that Aro: The Arrow only speaks of important matters.

Let Us sit in the back and give Our most humble attentions to him as well, Reader, for We can easily take on the role of a student. I brought you here today because there is much to learn from the back of the classroom, in the hidden open spaces only We can occupy in this world.

"Thank you. I must begin by apologizing for my absence from this class. I'm sure you can all understand that we cannot control the needs of our responsibilities that pop up unannounced, but that we can only do our best to fulfill the commitments we have made in the order that we have made them. Unfortunately I am needed for things that have been under my responsibility for a much longer time than the beginning of this term, so I must tend to them and leave you to your own devices every so often. I cannot tell you how many more sixth hours I will miss, but I assure you I will be here for as many as possible."

Aro's inky eyes trace the classroom and his Remarkability floods into every crack, every corner, every solid edge of stone. These students are all assembled into this class for specific purposes that only Aro knows and he feels a specific and unique inclination towards each and every one of them. His eyes hold for an almost unnoticable lengthier amount of time on the three in the back of the classroom (the three that are surely our favorites in this crows) and they each feel it.

Because of this action our Edward, Bella, and Carlisle know what We know. They know that Aro: The Arrow is very aware of their Awakening and their placement on The List. For, when someone as Remarkable as Aro spends and almost unnoticable lengthier amount of time peering at _you_ with his deep black eyes, you can be sure to know he shares in your secrets.

"Now," he continues cooly, sweeping his gaze naturally back towards the podium in front of him and away from the three he wishes to keep his attention on, "we have a lot to cover today, my friends! I wanted to go over the basic history of the Tower World with you. This class is made up of first and second term students only, so you are all still fairly fresh in your training here and may need to get a few solid facts down. However, I do expect you all to know most of this information since it concerns the very world you hold up. I'm going to ask you in advance to forgive anything we go over that feels like review of remedial information. I assure you, I do not go over any of this for my health. It's all to a purpose."

Aro smiles at the room and it's not an unpleasant sight. His tone and demeanour have lightened much to the delight of the entire room. We can feel it, too, even here in the back, because Aro is a man that fills the whole room when he has commanded it's attentions.

"As you all know, our world, the Tower World, exists parallel to the world on Earth that most of us grew up in. The Tower High, our very school, and Perso, the small town you've all surely visited that rests just outside our borders are special in comparison to the rest of the regions on Earth. Why?"

"They rest on the border of the Tower World and the world of Earth," a small boy, Eric Yorkie who sits in the front of the room replies.

"Correct. You can consider us the zipper between the two worlds, if you will. Both Perso and the property of this school are in between the world of Earth and The world of the Tower. We belong to both and we belong to neither. The only access to the World of the Tower is through our gates so that our precious world can be guarded properly at all times by all of the most capable full Remarkables."

"But Professor, isn't it true that no Remarkables have been into the World of the Tower in over a century?" Jessical Stanley, the very same Jessica who thinks it's her duty to warn Bella about the cold Edward Masen, asks from the second row.

"That is not true," Aro replies firmly. "These are the rumors, the very lies, I want to clear up with all of you today. It is true that it is extremely rare for any Remarkable to enter into the Tower Realm these days," he admits with a sad sigh that everyone can feel as a wash of light regret. "We are constantly working towards opening up that world to all of us, every Remarkable, because it is meant to be our land. It's been promised to us. Eric and Jessica, can either of you explain that part of our history?"

Eric sits up in his seat and attempts to look more Remarkable than he is as he prepares to answer.

"It's all found in the legend of Lumfiv and Bader, I believe. It's said to be the land that Lumifiv has reserved for us, Professor. Her and Bader created the Tower of the Sky as a sacred place they could meet and share their love."

Eric Yorkie from the front row opens his mouth to continue with his explanation, but Aro raises his hand and silently commands the boy to stop speaking.

With a flourish of Aro's other hand he releases a soft, white, shiny powder into the air in front of him. The dust flies above his head and catches the light beautifully, but instead of falling to the ground it settles into the space just above him and begins to take the form of a picture, a shimmering image for the whole class to see.

Can you see the picture, Reader? The shiny dust has formed above Aro's head the image of two glowing orbs that are stuck in the sky at opposite ends of the world, always doomed to be apart. We can see them for what We know them to be, for what you yourself have recongized them to be since you were a small child. The picture that has formed above Aro's head is of the sky, our very own normal, Earthly sky. On one side of the shiny image we can see the sun, on the other the moon.

"Lumifiv and Bader," Aro breathes as he looks at the picture above him and points to each orb in turn. "The Sun and the Moon, as they are best known on Earth. They are the reason for our beloved Tower of the Sky. They are the creators of our lost Tower World. They are the center of what we do day in and day out, in the grand scheme of things."

Tear your eyes away form the sparkling, spinning spheres for just a moment, Dear Reader, and gaze around the classroom with me. Every eye is set on the images swirling above Aro's head. Jessica Stanley watches in just as much wonder as our Bella, or even our splendid Edward, because in moments like these all of the boys and all of the girls have no differences. This is one of those moments where everyone is exactly the same because everyone can feel the same weight of their shared history. This is one of the rare moments when popularity and insecurity and obscurity don't exist. When they all know that the world they live in, or on the outside of, or in between, is so _so_ much larger than the small person they are.

"What is special about their world, their Tower..." Aro says with a flick of his wrist as he throws another small handfull of the shimmery dust into the air, "is that only here can they be together." The dust settles into another form and this time it has become a minature depiction of the Tower of the Sky itself, resting in between the still spinning sun and moon. "Only in this world can Remarkable things _truly_ happen. That is why we must strive to get into this world permanently, to unlock it. We are all Remarkable here but we are still confined to a world we do not belong in."

Aro's face falls just a bit and it is not easy to ignore the shade of sadness that covers his charcoal eyes.

"Have you been to the Tower Realm, Professor?" Angela Weber from the desk right in front of Edward asks in a small, concerned voice.

"I have."

That is all he can say on the subject now, all he needs to say, for We can all see that he does not wish to discuss his longing to remain there permanently with this class here and now.

The Arrow composes himself and clears his throat. He wipes his hand through the air above him and all of the images disappear, leaving the now empty space in the air feeling unfairly void of life without the sparkling images there to fill it.

Bella and Carlisle share a small, fast look of fascination. Neither have ever seen such a trick as the one Aro has been using with the shimmery dust and both find it beautiful and magical.

Edward scowls and finds himself wishing that Bella were sharing any and all of her quick looks with him.

We snicker to ourselves and can be pleased with his displeasure, Reader, I assure that it's all right. For this upset is what will drive him to confirm what Bella does not yet believe about herself; that she is what he wants.

"Let's dive into all of you, shall we?" Aro continues, putting on a new face of instruction. "What are some of the lies that normals believe about Remarkables, and then what are the truths behind those lies?"

"Most people believe that we are intentionally hurt by the existing full Remarkables as some sort of initiation into the school," Eric Yorkie from the front speaks up once again.

Aro nods sadly, "Unfortunately this is a normal misconception about our lives. What is the truth behind this lie, Eric?"

"The truth is that we do go through something painful in our lives, but it is not inflicted by anyone from the Tower High, or the world of the Tower. Not intentionally, at least. At the age of eleven we experience what we call our Incident: a painful or traumatic experience that alters our view on life and triggers our Remarkability."

"Young Eric speaks the truth, as you all surely know. Each and every person walking the halls of the Tower High has experienced their Incident long before they arrive here. All of you have experienced one unique to your life. At the age of eleven everyone who is meant to be a Remarkable will experience their Incident and it will drive forth their special abilities, bringing who they truly are into action. These Incidents all vary from personal traumatic experiences, to watching a loved one go through something terrible, to causing something ugly occur yourself, always on accident of course. Only through these deep emotional traumas can our abilities be triggered because it is in these times our normal human selves are most vounerable and are able to begin being transformed into the Remarkable we are meant to be."

There is a lapse in movement in the room now, I feel it too, Reader. Everyone is taking a moment to recount their Incident, no doubt, and I'm not sorry to say that neigher You nor I can partake in this nostalgia. We are not be Remarkable in the same way as this room full of bodies so We have not endured many of the horrible things these sets of eyes and ears and hearts have.

In this silence something is happening to our Bella. Do you see it, Reader? It's just there, just below all of the horrid images of her broken father that she is pushing back into the dark corners of her mind... it's a boldness she is fighting to hold on to. Oh, look! We can see her pulling this courage up up up through her bones and into her voice, for this is the feeling she has been so used to having pulse through her before she knew who Edward Masen ever was.

With this old, familiar feeling of confidence Bella raises her hand for just a moment, successfully grabbing Aro's attention so that she may speak to him across the room.

"Yes Isabella," he addresses her with a knowing glint in the ebony of his iris. He has been waiting patiently to hear from any one of the three in the back of the room that he knows are Awake.

"I was wondering if we could discuss The List at all," she asks, causing us all to sit a little bit straighter and look at Aro with just a little bit more conviction.

Edward glances at Bella and he looks approving of her boldness. Inspired.

Carlisle is a little taken aback by her boldness, but cannot deny that he himself would very much enjoy hearing Aro touch on this topic.

It's plain for Us to see that Aro likes Isabella a lot and is happy that it was her and not Edward who was dauntless enough to ask that question.

"There's no getting around it, I suppose," he smiles widely at her. "Can you tell me what The List is?"

Ah, the connection between Edward, Bella, and Carlisle is strong in this moment. They are united though it must be just her who speaks, and as every ear in the room tunes into Isabella Swan's voice only three of them understand that this is an actual member of The List speaking of it's purpose.

"Of course. The List is the group of chosen Remarkables that must come together to complete the unlocking of the Tower Realm."

"Correct. And how does The List come to be Composed?"

Bella swallows and knows that he knows.

_It's already been Composed._

"It is written in the Mavity, as it has been for centuries. It has been prophesized since then that when the time was right The Tower would call The List, awaken them, so that this... this team of people, if you will, would be the chosen group to enter into the Tower Realm and unlock it for the rest of the Tower community that is trapped here, on Earth."

"Yes, Isabella, that is competely correct. As most of you should know, the Mavity is the ancient book that has never been seen by any Remarkable living or dead. It is locked inside the Tower of the Sky and will only ever be seen by the members of The List who make it into the Tower to perform the unlocking. In the Mavity are many secrets but the most precious and discussed of these are The List itself and the instructions on unlocking that world to us. Keeping with the theme of our discussion, can anyone tell me any misconceptions that have been circulated about The List?"

"Some people believe that the Remarkables on The List are more powerful than everyone else," Edward Masen from the isolated seat in the very back row says, surprising everyone.

Edward does not usually speak, does not usually offer his voice freely to the world when this many others are around, for he usually finds himself with no desire to say anything.

What's this, though? Ha! What do we have here?

Our Edward is glowing inside with a secret desire to be different than he was, to seem more open, even just this small bit, for the behalf of a young woman he finds very courageous and very worth trying to be different for.

Bella is just happy to be hearing his strong, smooth voice again and has no idea that it's all for her benefit.

Aro: The Arrow is pleased with everything right now, it seems, because he loves when the young ones become something other than what they were the minute before.

"That's very true, Edward. Tell us, why is that particular notion a lie? Wouldn't it be natural to assume that the Remarkables chosen for such a large task would need to be stronger than the rest of us."

Edward, Bella, Carlisle, and Aro are silly, sneaky Characters right now, Reader, aren't they? The poor students sitting in this room have no idea that these four are aware of the underlying conversation happening here. The one that Aro is using to challenge his three prized List members with. None of the others know that these four need to know all of this information as a current reality, not a history.

"It would be safe to assume that the List members need to be strong, but it has next to nothing to do with their Remarkability specifics being more powerful. Isn't that what all of this, this whole school is about? We have to learn that who we are needs to be matched with our Remarkability, not trumped by it."

"Ah. So you're saying that a person's character needs to be taken into account when measuring their worth," Aro relpies with a mischievious edge to his tone.

Edward shares a look with Aro that tells of how unamused he is. We can see now exactly what the rest of the class does. Aro and Edward's relationship began some time before this class and this converstaion.

"Yes," Edward agrees with a solid green, obedient stare, "I'm saying that a person's character is what matters most. That, as I'm told, is the only way to measure true worth around here. All of us can do impressive things but what does that matter if we aren't willing to do honourable things?"

"Excellent."

Aro's one worded response hangs in the air as his eyes capture Edward's one final time. He is pleased to know that this boy can recycle this information, but he is concerned over whether or not Edward believes it himself yet. It is the one lesson Aro has been trying to push into Edward for one full term now. It is the most important thing that the boy can learn because it is the one thing he does not believe himself to be. Worthy.

Aro goes on to explain the more of the mystery of the Tower Realm and reveals when asked by Michael Newton from far left of the third row that yes, he has been to the Tower World himself, briefly, and that he could not describe it for he would not be able to do it justice.

Most of the students in this class on this day are listening with awe. They are hearing a retelling of what they've come to study for themselves and can now match the facts they have collected on their own with the very ones The Arrow is giving them today.

Edward, Bella, and Carlisle are listening with different ears, though. They are different then even Our ears, Reader, for they have so much already invested in the information pertaining to the world of The Tower of the Sky. They all notice Aro's flitting black glances in their direction and they all start to anticipate when he will call The List together and step in as their offical Leader, the one he has always been destined to be.

The rest of the Remarkables in this class will go on with their days in a normal fashion.

Carlisle, even, will be slightly less changed on this day than Edward and Bella will.

For, just as class is ending, only Bella receives a note from Edward.

She glances at him and then opens it, careful not to move too quickly and seem too eager to see his handwriting for herself.

Lean in with me Reader, let's look on, shall We? For his words are simple and few, and Isabella would surely share them with Us anyway if she were aware of our presence.

When she looks up from the paper he is gone, having disappeared in a blink, but she smiles back down at the slip of paper on her desk despite his vacant desk. Our lovely friend Carlisle stands to escort Bella out of class and asks her why she is smiling so very widely at a seemingly blank piece of paper.

In response she lifts the paper and lets him read the words for himself even though a boy will surely never smile so much over words such as these:

**_Bella, please meet me at the foot of the Viewing Tower tonight at eight. I would love for us to spend some over due time together. Alone._**

**_-Edward_**

**Chapter 6 - Part 3 - EPOV**

**"The View (Pt 1)"**

_-*- All was golden when the Day met the Night -*-_

I look at my watch and sigh.

Of course she is not here yet, I have arrived thirty three minutes early.

It's not my fault. I'm normally quite punctual but tonight I had to leave my room absurdly prematurely because if I hadn't Emmett would have literally driven me up a wall with all of his relentless questioning.

_"What are you going to say to her, Eddie? You haven't held a real conversation with a woman in... well, ever?"_

_"What are your plans for the evening? You have to have a plan..."_

_"Are you going to tell her about your restriction? Are you ready for her reaction to that?"_

_"What will you do if she tries to kiss you?"_

_"Don't you just want to jump her?"_

_"Is there cheese on this salad?"_

_"Are you really going to wear that shirt?"_

I stop pacing and lean my head against the large stones of the wall.

I do not honestly believe that I can do this correctly, but I have no choice. Bella is like a drug I cannot quell my need for.

I've been as reserved and resigned as possible around her for the past week or so in an effort not to destroy everything, but it seems I have finally reached my breaking point.

The poor girl obviously has no idea what she is getting into with me but I'm not sure either of us have a choice in this because I've used my rationale to try and keep her protected from my life but none of the usual logic is working. I need to be around her.

Ever since I first saw her I've been obsessed with how warm she looks. She's beautiful beyond measure, at least to my eyes, and I've only been finding out since that first day that she's thankfully got a personality to back that beauty up.

We burn the pencil together. We are both on The List. I _feel_ things when I'm around her. I want to touch her...

These are all reasons why I cannot stay away from her and have to go against everything I've ever believed about myself and my solitude.

Emmett's ecstatic, if not a little nervous, about how this is all developing for me. He knows that I've not persued any sort of human interaction since childhood. He knows what this means to me, what the risk is for me. He believes that this will all turn out for the better and I trust him, I want to believe it for myself, so here we are.

I'm going to spend some alone time with Bella.

And I have no real idea what the hell to do with any of that time.

Up until this point I suppose I've acted ideally. Our first few conversations felt charged and I felt in charge while we had them. I spoke in ways I've never spoken before, using my attraction to her as a drive to say exactly what I was thinking and hoping that it came off as something other than absurd.

I may not be able to hear _her_ mind, but I can hear Jasper's. So I know for a fact that she has been effected by my presence, my words, and that's driven me to give her more.

I hear her light footsteps before I actully see her and it makes me wonder how long I've stood with my head pressed against the wall.

I never used to feel time lapse easily away like I do lately. Now I find myeslf sitting for groups of minutes at a time, just pushing my thoughts towards this one girl that I cannot fully figure out.

I stand up and turn towards the sound. I am just happy that she came, that she responded to my note at all because knowing that someone feels something for you and having them act on it are two entirely different things. I was not positive she would take this step with me, small as it is compared to the possibility of what we could be together is.

Finally, I see her. She looks exactly like she always does, pretty and casual, and I'm a little bit worried about how I notice that her turquoise nailpolish is chipping.

I do not pay attention to the details of girls.

I do pay attention to Isabella Swan.

"Good evening, Bella," I say as she approaches and smiles what appears to be nervously. "Please don't be nervous," I plead in direct response to my observation of her smile, despite my better judgement not to. As I've already acknowledged, I speak more freely around her than perhaps I should.

"Is there a need for me to be nervous?" she asks, arching an eyebrow and stopping a few steps farther away from me than I'd like.

I close the distance I wish she had and chuckle.

"No, of course not. Unless you count the tension between us. The burning. The mystery of why I cannot hear you when I can hear everyone else."

"Oh, why would we count those things? They can't mean anythi- wait. What are you talking about? You can't_ hear_ me?"

She's very clearly confused and I'm very clearly acting like a dumb ass for being so forward. It's all right, though. The purpose of getting her here tonight was to show her more about me. I want her to understand what it means to be close to me. What it entails and what burdens it bears.

"I cannot hear your mind, Bella," I admit with a sigh. It has taken me a lot of sleepless nights to come to terms with this fact.

"Really?"

"You sound far too amused."

"Well, no. It's not that. I just... you can hear everyone else, can't you?"

"_Every_one else."

"That's crazy. I'm sorry?"

She definitely asks it as a question and it is adorable. I want to hold her hand and tell her that she should never really be sorry for anything when it comes to me.

That's not part of my reality, though, so instead I just laugh again, almost sadly.

"I truly hope that you aren't sorry. It doesn't seem very much like you. It has to be nice to know you have some privacy. I actually enjoy the silence," I admit as I tap my temple once for emphasis.

This statement earns me a smile and she agrees that it is, in fact, not like her to be sorry for things out of her control, and she's not really sorry at all about keeping her hidden thoughts to herself.

"Why did you want to meet here?" she asks me as she looks around the dark, deserted hallway.

"Do you want to go to the top of the tower with me? There's a lovely view tonight. I want to show you something."

She nods and I gesture for her to begin walking up the spiral stairs in front of me but I fall easily into step beside her as we begin to ascend.

As we climb the stairs the tension between us that always builds when we are on our own grows thick. It's odd because it's almost become comforting to me, like I am not myself when my chest does not feel tight and my skin is not tingling with it's awareness of her around me.

I glance at her and smirk, because I can tell by the way her fingers are twitching that she can feel it too. Her cheeks heat and she's too much to look at for a few moments as she catches my eye.

"Things got interesting with Aro today in sixth," she says quietly.

"Yes they did. He most definitely knows that we know we are on The List. He's just not doing anything about it yet."

"Do you know him very well?"

"I do, actually. Why do you ask?"

"He spoke to you with a familiarity I didn't feel when he addressed me or anyone else. We were all first termers, though, so I suppose that could have accounted for something."

"That's not an incorrect observaiton, but you were right to assume that I know him even better than my second term status would dictate. I've spent some extra time with Aro thanks to my third Class... situation. He's enthralled with me, to put it bluntly."

I grunt in disapproval and she lets out a short, small laugh.

"That's not hard to believe," she says again in the quiet voice.

"What does that mean?" I ask urgently, afraid and excited for her answer to be what I want it to be.

"I just... it's not hard to be... you know, enthralled with you. Who you are as a whole, I mean, _three_ Classifications, Edward? That's impressive."

She truly does sound impressed and I cannot deny the effect that her praise alone has on my pride.

I'm not so sure I want her to be that impressed with my Classifications and not with me, just me as a man, though.

I foolishly hope that someday she'll find the rest of me that appealing as well.

"Thank you. It's been very overwhelming for me at times, honestly. My third Classification isn't even useful in everyday life."

"That's odd, I was under the impression that Emmett could use an electricution at lest bi-weekly to keep him in line."

I find myself laughing with her and agreeing readily and it feels good to be joking with someone other than the giant man she's referring to.

"You are not far off, actually. I've been waiting for Alec to come and ask for my services. He's very excitable and I personally would love to give him a jolt every now and again. Maybe it'd help his insatiable appetite, too, who knows? Unfortunately Aro has asked me to keep that particular Class under wraps for the time being."

"That's too bad. It's so intriguing. Lightening? I really do want to see it someday," she says as we reach the top landing of the tower and begin to walk down the short hallway.

"I'll show you," I promise her with conviction.

"I sure hope you do," she breathes, sounding unconvinced.

I turn and step towards her, backing her up against the wall with the closeness of my body. The fabric of our clothing is almost touching and she has to be less than an inch away from me. I haven't felt the heat of another human like this in so long. I find it utterly wonderful.

"I will show you," I say slowly as I stare into her eyes, begging her to believe me because I want her to learn that she can trust any words that I give to her.

Her answering smile is so convinved, so full of joy, it makes my fingertips buzz with electricity because if she wants to see it so badly then I want to light up the whole damn sky with bolts righ this second.

Me self preservation keeps me from loosing control and I back away from her, nodding as I do so. I'm not sure what I'm agreeing to as I nod but I think it's the way my head and my heart both scream at me that being so close to her could potentially kill me for any number of reasons.

"What is your relationship wth Aro like?" she asks as we start walking again and I guide her around the top of the Viewing Tower.

"All of the attention I've received from him since I've been here has brought us close, I suppose you could say. As close as one can get to The Arrow."

"Right. He's still such a mystery to me. I cannot wait to spend more time with him once he takes his place as The List's Leader. He's not intimidating is he?"

"Hardly. Though I'm sure he can be when he needs to. He hasn't taken control of this school by being passive and soft, I'm sure. He's never been anything but encouraging to me."

"Has he ever spoken to you about The List or his expectations of it?"

"A few times. He was convinced that I would make it if The List got called in my lifetime."

I feel her look up to me so I glance down the good twelve inches that resides between our heights. She's so small and I love how I feel like that means I have a right to protect her.

"That's an honour that he would share that with you."

"I don't think so, Bella. I mean, I'm sure he's thought that about a great number of students he's known. I'm sure he'd have recognized your worth had he spent time with your before the Composition."

The lovely red color that flooded her cheeks once before comes back and unleashes it's effect on me once again so I'm forced to look away from her to compose myself. I see the window I want to direct her to, the one that will give us an optimal view of what I wish her to see, so I start directing our path towards it.

"What did you want to show me?" she asks as we approach the open window.

We both rest our forearms on the stone ledge and look out over the spanse of wilderness behind the school. Form this angle you can see both forest and sea. It's a very clear night and I check my watch to make sure we are right on time.

"Do you see that large tree over there, just east of the cove?" I ask, stretching my arm very near her in an effort to escort her gaze to the proper location.

"I think so. It has the branches that reach out further than all the rest?"

"That's the one. In just a moment that tree is going to come alive."

She looks up at me in confusion and wonder as I tilt my head towards the view to redirect her attention there. I want to explore the way she looks at me but I do not want her to miss this because I feel very attune to what I just spoke and I want to know that she's seen something so wonderful.

She is a hurricane and I am a tree.

I will be uprooted and throw about by her, I feel it, and I do not wish to stop it.

I feel that very soon, if not even now, I too will be coming alive.

* * *

**Thank you SO much for reading! Please please please let me know if (and what) you are still enjoying!**

**I have to give a shout out to A Cullen Wannabe for posting a review on the wonderful website The Writer's Coffee Shop of my very first story, If Every Word I Said Could Make You Laugh. I will always feel connected to that story and cannot believe that it is still getting affection from so many wonderful people :)**

**Until next time!**

**LOVE YOUS**

**-Car**


	7. Truths

**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Truths**_

**Chapter 7 - Part 1 - BPOV**

**"The View (Pt 2)"**

_-*- All was golden when the Day met the Night -*-_

I want to keep looking at him, only him, but that's ridiculous and he's so insistent on my looking out towards the giant tree in the distance, so I do.

I'm shivering inside because the heat between us has built in the moments we've been up here, alone. I lean with him against the cold stones of the open window he's led me to and I think it's funny, in a very unhumorous way, how I feel so chilled and warmed at the same time.

I stare at the tree, waiting, while concentrating completely on how close his arm is to mine. If I were to move just an inch to the left I'd be pressed against him, only by the innocent arm, but I feel like that small touch would be enough to explore for now.

Before I suck in a breath and make my move something happens.

The tree _does_ come alive.

"Whoa," I elegantly gasp before I can help it.

Tiny lights have started errupting from the inside of the tree, moving about it's leaves and branches freely and frantically.

The tree is rather far off in the distance so I cannot see every separate leaf but it's not so far that I can't see the details of each of the fine lights that dashes about it's perimeter and within it's limits.

It's beautiful and alive and magical. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. It's something I've dreampt of seeing ever since I was twelve years old and first heard of this very tree that comes alive in the night only once a year.

"What are they?" I ask softly, hoping that I already know the answer: _Paladins_.

"Paladins," he responds in a voice just as quiet. "They are little pixies that live in the cherries of that tree. But you've heard of them before, haven't you?"

Even his voice feels insanely close to me. I want to lean into it, too, to touch it. But that's just more of the ridiculous coming through.

I focus again on the tree and the lights and the Paladins that I wasn't convinced existed until now.

"Yes, I've heard of them," I say as I remember very distinctly the first time I read about them in a book I picked up years ago when I was still just learning about the world of the Tower. "I wasn't sure they were real, though."

"Most people aren't since they only appear once a year and they only live here, in this tree, guarding the barrier to the Tower Realm."

"I know," I sigh as I quietly continue to admit how amazing this experience is for me, "I studied them a lot when I was researching the Tower World after my Incident. They are such a little part of the magic in this world, but they caught my attention. They sort of fascinate me."

"I know."

I feel him staring at me so I turn my head away from the beautiful sight of the dancing tree and look back at him.

His eyes are so dark up here with only the light of the moon to illuminate them. They look almost black and that makes his gaze more intense than usual, which at this moment is almost too intense for me to handle.

"I brought you up here because I wanted you to see them. I wanted to show them to you, if I could, since I saw them before, last year. Aro informed me of their appearance tonight and of your inclination to them so I just thought... well I thought it would be a nice reason for us to spend time together, secluded, since their celebration is kept under wraps. It's all just an excuse in the end, I suppose, to spend time with you. But I thought it'd be nice if I knew we were doing something you'd enjoy, at least."

His rambling is cute. He smiles shyly and it looks odd on him. As if he reserves his smiles for rare, rare moments and they are never meant to be shy. His words warm me and encourage me and I cannot help but analyze them. I realize three things.

One. He knows of my odd fascination with the Palidins. I've never told anyone about that because it's just something small and unimportant about me. So how does he know?

Two. He wanted to show me them himself. To be alone with me. To give me something I'd enjoy or to make sure I spent time with him, or both.

Three. He thought he needed an_ excuse_ to hang out with me.

I turn my head back towards the tree, towards the sprite celebration that is happening there, and swallow hard, ridding my mind of any hesitancy. He made the first step in conversation, admitting that he thought up this whole thing as an _excuse_ for us to spend time together. Now I felt I could be open with him about the thrill I had of being here with him, at the thrill that shoots through me at the thought of being _anywhere_ with him.

"You didn't need an excuse, just so you know, Edward," I say quietly into the night as I make a point to concentrate on the tree whose inhabitants are glowing a soft orange color.

I can still feel him looking at me. He does not pause before he responds. The shyness of his smile is completely abandoned and instantly replaced with the conviction in his voice.

"I know now. And until you tell me otherwise I'll asume I don't need one when I wish to steal you away in the future."

I like his boldness. I like that this feels more like the boy who first spoke to me outside of the Platt cabin. I think that maybe, hopefully, this is the real version of him while the version of him that walks me to class is a nervous facade that I will not have to endure again.

I turn back to him and am faced with a more proper smile this time. It's confident and slightly cocky and crooked.

It suits him.

I feel my cheeks heat and clear my throat a bit.

I try to remind myself that I'm not afraid of anything. That I haven't been since I was eleven years old.

"No. No, you definitely don't."

He nods once and things, the air between us, begins to heat even more than usual. I feel as if the invisible particles swirling between us are turning into tiny embers. I want to look down, to see if maybe they _are_ so that I can catch the space between us alight in a brilliant glow, but I don't look because again I'm choosing his gaze over anything else.

I have forgotten the magnificent tree and the Paladins. Before I met Edward I probably would have said that the one thing I wanted most, the best treat I could receive was watching a Paladin celebration.

A lot of things have changed since I met Edward, though, so I am not surprised to add this to the list.

"What do you think the heat means?" I ask in a quiet voice, knowing he will know what I'm referring to. The air between us, then pencil, the hotness in the connection between our eyes.

"Aro thinks that it has to do with a special connection within The List-"

"Edward, what do _you_ think it means?"

"I agree with Aro."

I clear my throat and remind myself: I am not afraid of anything, not even what I feel for this enigmatic boy.

_Make him say what you want him to hear, Bella. Make him admit that this is something special._

"So you think that whatever is going on between us has to do with our placement on The List. Nothing more?" I push.

It's clear in my inflection that I do not think this is true. I think it_ is_ more and I think he thinks that, too.

"Yes."

He looks like he means what he says. His stare is hard. It's not unkind but it's guarded. Hesitant.

The rejection is hurtful.

"Ok," is all I respond with, because everything else I want to say is too revealing of my disappointment.

I don't believe he's telling me the truth, but I have to accept that he doesn't want to speak of what's going on between us out loud. He _has_ to know that whatever is happening between us is more than The List connection. It's unique and mysterious and intense. But I'm not going to pry that much further, because pushing for the truth and exposing desperation for what you wish to hear are two things that lay on opposite sides of a very fine line.

A moment of hot silence passes between us. I decide that I cannot look at him anymore so I turn back to the tree. There are fewer lights flying about, but they are still there, dancing and celebrating.

I feel like crawling into bed and breaking the sacred pencil that I guard with my life in two because I'm feeling miserable that the reason why I ever pushed that small piece of wood off my desk for a week straight doesn't even want to acknowledge what's going on between us.

I turn to tell him that I'm tired and want to go to bed (a lie that will grant me the wallowing I'm craving) but before I get any words out he speaks again.

"Yes. All right. Yes. I do think there's more to it. Between us. I think that there's more than just our connection to The List. I think the connection is deeper. I don't have anything like this with anyone else, on the list or off."

I smiled and sigh at the same time at his rushed admittance.

_Thank you, Edward._

"I just wish I knew what it is that's happening. I don't feel this for any of the others either. This heat, or pull, or whatever else."

"Attraction, Bella. You don't feel attraction to them, that's your _whatever else_."

I pause at his bold, sure word. _Attraction_. So we're admitting it, then? Out loud. That we are _attracted_.

He is throwing me for a loop again, making me feel once more like I'm not enough for him, because he is almost too much. He fights against himself constantly, within the same moment it seems. But I'm slowly breaking the barrier he has put up around him and I am pulling out the self-assured boy who wants to talk about being attracted to me with lips that are twisted into the most egotistical smirk I've ever encountered or swooned over.

Again, I like it far too much how he looks when he's being cocky.

"Ok. Yes, then, I don't feel attraction to anyone else like I do to you."

I don't like how quiet my voice is or how pink my cheeks feel, but he's still smirking at me so I think that maybe he does and that's enough to keep me from launching myself out of the window in embarassment.

"Anyone else on The List specifically, or any one else at all?" he asks seriously.

"Anyone else at all."

He smiles and it's beautiful. And then it's gone.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

Clearly something is. His eyes have changed and his mouth is in a sad line. Again the mood has shifted. He looks down at his hands and then back up to me. It's all done very dismally.

"You don't know what hearing those words from you does to me. It's... overwhelmingly satisfying. But I have to tell you the truth, Bella. About me. Before this gets too far. Before you get in too far."

I snort a bitter laugh quietly.

He doesn't know that it's too late already. I'm in too far. My days are composed around him, around the attention he gives me and the thoughts I have about him. I do function perfectly fine when he's not around, I laugh and smile with others that are not him, and if he never spoke to me again after this night I would be able to continue with my life, even if I would always keep him in my mind.

But my feelings about my life are starting to center around his reactions to me and that's definitely getting in too far.

I nod for him to continue before I admit all of that, though.

"I cannot have normal relationships," he says slowly, giving each word time to form, to float, and to fade away.

"What does that mean?"

This sounds all right to me. He is not a normal boy. I don't want normal with him. I want to kiss him and live with him and make him so happy his electric hands shoot lightening into the sky every single night.

"It's all part of my Remarkability," he begins with a heavy sigh. He runs his hand through his hair and looks at me from a downcast stare.

He's sad.

And from this one look I'm sad and I don't even know why.

And then he speaks again and I do know why.

"Basically, I cannot be touched. By anyone. Probably ever. If I ever come in contact with another human's skin I'll lose my Remarkability and my placement in the Tower Community. I'll lose everything."

"What? Why?" I ask. I'm curious and upset both at how unfair and unnatural this is for him and for the many fantasies this is requiring me to give up.

This definitely ruins things for me and my hands that want to run up and down his arms.

"I don't know why, exactly. It's just... it's sort of a long story but it's something that Aro knows to be true. His brother Marcus was the strongest prophet that the world has ever seen before he disappeared after his wife died. When I was born Marcus phrophecized my powers and with it my stipulation. I cannot have physical human contact. Most Remarkables have stipulations, it's not uncommon, right? This is mine. It's harsh, and isolating, and drastic-"

"And unfair," I interrupt harshly.

I feel rude for doing it but it's too late for manners on my part. This _is_ unfair. To me. To the boy I want to touch. To this poor man before me who has been deprived of any basic form of human connection for who knows how long.

"It's my reality. I've grown used to it," he says, resigned.

"How long has it been since you've been touched, Edward?"

"My mother hugged me the night that my parents died. The night of my Incident."

Ten years. It's been ten years.

"I'm sorry, Edward," I whisper. And now, more than any of the days in the short few weeks I've known of him, I want nothing more than to reach out and grasp him.

"No, I'm sorry," he argues, the fire coming back into his eyes. "Bella, I'm standing here telling you that I think the connection between us is something more, something stronger than I've ever felt before but that I cannot physically act on it. Ever. You need to understand that before you get too involved with any sort of relationship with me. I cannot give you what any woman deserves. It doesn't matter what I feel or how much I enjoy being with you. I meant what I said about our attraction being mutual; it's more than I could have hoped for. But it's just a fantasy in my reality. Relationships aren't plausible for me. You have to walk away. I'm a dead end for you."

His voice is strong and sure and my eyes sting with the threat of tears but I hate crying so I hold them in. This feels horrid. This feels wrong. This feels like the end of something that never even had the chance to begin.

"I would never call you a dead end, Edward," I manage to say through strained breath because I just want him to look happy again.

"You don't even know me. Not truly."

This statement makes me mad. I know him more than he thinks. I watch him in moments when no one else is watching him. I study him. And I really do feel like he's given me more glimpses of his true self than I think he has given anyone in the past ten years, even just for seconds at a time.

"I know that I like being around you. I know that you make me laugh, and blush, and second guess everything about myself because I want you to like what you see."

"You shouldn't concern yourself with what I think, Bella. I cannot ever act on what you make me want to do."

The air around his words hangs thick and for a second all I want is to know what I make him want to do.

"Well, I still want to get to know you," I say with conviction. "I know that you cannot be happy living so isolated. And I don't think I can just walk away from you now that I've found you, no matter what you can or cannot give me. I'll take whatever I can get, whatever you're able to give. I don't care about anything else."

"You will."

I shake my head and bite my lip in frustration.

None of this is fair.

I feel like he's too used to being pushed away. Or he's too used to doing the pushing. Either way, I do not see that as an option for me, for us, not now, because reguardless of whether or not he can ever kiss me or hold my hand, I'm addicted to him.

I do not think about the long term ramifications of getting emotionally attached to Edward Masen. I do not think about how painful it will be to potentially fall in love with a man that I have to stay away from, literally. I do not think about how soft his hair looks, or the redness of his lips, or the broadness of his chest.

I stare into his eyes and only think that the sadness, the lonliness there is wrong and horrible and I want to help it disappear. So I smile and lean my head against the edge of the stone window and try to look calm as I resign myself to be a part of this fate. To his untouchable fate.

"Edward, something you are going to have to learn about me, quickly, is that I make my own decisions. If I want to get to know you, I will."

The sadness doesn't leave his eyes but he chuckles and nods, and it's a start.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he murmurs under his breath as he sighs.

I turn towards the view out the window and notice that the tree has gone dark except for two small lights dancing around each other in the outter limits of the branches. The moon is high in the sky, and the sun's light reflecting off of it has turned it golden. This is how the night of the Paladin celebration is marked, by the gold hue that streaks through the sky. It marks a new Tower year, a new beginning for the Realm that none of us can get into. It's a beautiful, rare sight, and I try to appreciate the subtle beauty of the golden glow in the sky and the two innocent lights dancing in the shadowed branches of the tree.

But I'm too obsessed with sealing my fate to Edward's despite any frustrating stipulation so my attention quickly turns from the golden night back to him.

"Thank you for being honest with me," I tell him, truly grateful.

He simply nods once and smiles sadly.

"Can we promise to always be that way? With The List, and with this attraction... it would just be nice to know that we mutually agree to be real with each other, no matter what. One hundred percent."

His smile widens and brightens a bit and he nods again, this time sighing, "Of course. I adore honesty. And I would really like to get to know you, too, Bella, please don't doubt that despite how hard I've urged you to stay away."

It's my turn to nod and thank him and we stand at the window in slince for a time, stealing glances at each other and the glowing night. I do not know how long we stand there for before he recommends that he walks me back to my dorm. I do not know how I make my feet move and my heart stay whole as my time with him tonight comes to an end.

All I do know is that I've probably began my whole entire relationship with Edward based on a lie, despite the honesty pact I've asked him to enter into with me. I do not just want to get to know him. I want to fix him, and love him, and defy reality with him.

And so help me, I swear up and down the almighty Tower of the Sky itself that I will, some glorious day, figure out a way to touch him.

**Chapter 7 - Part 2 **

**"The Stall"**

Oh, Reader! These Characters, they are certainly on the move, aren't they?

These are not the bold moves we wait anxiously to see them make, but they are signifigant motions none-the-less. While our guarded Edward and our fated Bella descend the stairs of the Viewing tower The Arrow stands in the shadows, admiring what he has sprug into action.

Our Arrow is a strong man. He is a leader and prophecised ruler. He is calculated and learned and proper.

He is also extremely tired of watching Edward Masen remain isolated and cold to the rest of humanity, especially since so much of what he has yet to learn centers around love.

So what if he had to pull a few strings to get the boy into action?

Now, he is not a meddling man. But Aro: The Arrow will never, ever regret telling young Edward of miss Isabella Swan's fascination with the Paladins, nor will he rebuke himself for encouraging the boy to give her the gift of watching them dance in the tree.

Because even The Arrow has a heart and even he, the one being on earth that knows more of any sort of magic than any other, can attest the the unyielding magic of young love.

"You just cannot resist pulling strings around this place, can you?"

The voice of Jasper Whitlock pulls Aro from his hidden musings of how his non-meddling seems to be turning out.

It's a bit entertaining, isn't it, Reader? Seeing The Arrow jump a bit from his hiding spot, having been snuck up on by one of his subordinates.

"Sneaking around is not a healthy habit to form, my boy," Aro tells Jasper in a way that momentarily makes our Whitlock character fear that his most frequent form of sneaking with young Alice has been discovered by the one person the sneaking has been put in place for.

"You are speaking a contradiction, old man. How can you stand here in the shadows spying on Edward and Bella and lecture _me_ about sneaking?" Jasper deflects, feeling the air for any suspicion Aro has of he and Alice, but thankfully finding none.

"I was not spying. I do not have any need for spying. I was just curious. When I'm around I like to see things unfold for myself. They are good kids. And I have a right to know what's going on in the hallway of my own school after curfew."

See that look that he is giving Jasper, Reader? It is the look of a powerful authority figure in the middle of a reprimand, and it is a practiced look between Aro and the Whitlcok boy, but Jasper has earned the right to smirk at it so he does.

"You are still so bothered by the fact that we sneak out of here and pow-wow at the Platt's cabin, aren't you? It's all right. I've told you that I have those meetings under control. Besides, it gives the others a thrill to think that they are breaking the rules. Carlisle mostly, I think. I've thought of tolding him that we aren't actually breaking the rules, that you know all about our exploits on more than once occasion because his saintly heart can barely handle going against authority."

Jasper chuckles and it's so easy to see why people enjoy his company. His face lights up and his eyes scrunch. These kinds of Characters are always fun to be around. We are lucky to have one such as him, even if Aro is disapproving of his mirth in this moment.

"You are far too amused by good behavior, my boy. They are all fantastic students so of course I trust that these secret outtings to Perso will keep from spiraling out of control. That's not my concern, though it does comfort me that you are on The List, that you are there at these premature meetings to keep and eye on things while I cannot. I sincerely dislike keeping them all in the dark about my involvement but it's just not time to officially begin our work together."

The Arrow's features grow dark, concerned. We have surely never seen him like this, have We?

Jasper has. Though it's very rare that Aro shows this level of concern freely while in the company of others.

In a state of curiosity Jasper leans further into his trusted mentor's consciousness and soaks in the feelings swirling about him. We can see Jasper grow in concern, too, even after Aro remembers the Remarkability he is in the presence of and expertly wipes away his dark feelings.

He was too late, though. Jasper caught a glimpse, a taste of Aro's forboding concern and he is now so curious, he will do all the questioning we hope him to.

"Tell me the truth, Aro. Why aren't you taking the place as our Leader yet?"

"I told you already, it's just not time."

Aro begins taking steps into the hallway, away from the shady corner he was resting in while Edward and Bella passed on their way to their rooms. We follow Jasper as he trails The Arrow. The hallways are deserted and silent. Just right for this type of hushed, late night conversation.

"Well, when _will_ it be time? I'm not going to lie, keeping quiet about what I know, how much I know about The List, and the Tower Realm, and you... it's getting tiring. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to grow close to all of them when I'm keeping all of these secrets about myself."

"They know of your place at this school, do they not? Use your status as a pretence for your distance. At least for now. At least until I can take my place and assemble us all together officially. Then we can all talk freely of everything."

"I will not flaunt my status as a Professor, and you know that. They are all a bit younger and less experienced than me, yes, but I will not be daft enough to assume they are beneath me. We are all on The List together, Aro. That makes us equal. To believe that I would act as if it were any other way is insulting."

"Do what we are all called to at points in life then, boy: just do what needs to be done for the time being. Only you can figure out what that is, sometimes moment by moment. I do not know what else to tell you; what else you want from me."

"I just want the truth, Aro. As a professor at this school, and a member of The List, and someone who trusts and loves you, that is all I want. The truth."

We almost run into the back of them as they stop, abruptly, in the middle of the cold stone hallway.

Do not worry about the darkness in Aro's eyes, Reader. His inky, troubled stare is caused by the very things working around us, creating the story. If he did not look so troubled we would not have anything to look forward to.

Jasper feels the concern begin to fold around the elder man once again and he knows that what is coming he does not particularly want to hear.

"The truth, Professor?" Aro asks quietly, with a sour attitude he normally holds in check quite well. "The truth. The truth is that I'm stalling."

"Excuse me?"

Stalling is not anything that is ever to be associated with Aro: The Arrow, the leader of the Tower High School. Stalling is for those who do not know which step to take next. Stalling is for the unprepared and the frightened.

Jasper does not like the sound of this stalling business.

"Something is off, Jasper. Everything has begun far too soon. The Calling, the Composition... it's all come well before it should have. I mean, look around you! _You_ are the only qualified Remarkable on the List. Isabella and Alice, why, they are_ first_ years. Babies-"

"They are grown women."

The conviction in Jasper's voice reveals what We know about him, about his opinion of "Baby Alice". She is no baby to him. She is everything. Luckily, though, our Aro does not sense this deeper connection between Jasper's words and heart. He has too much more going on through his mind in swirling patterns that cloud his usually keen sense of suspicion.

"Even so, they are infant Remarkables."

"So, what are you saying exactly, old man? We were Composed wrong? We won't be as effective?"

"No, I'm not saying that. The List is as it should be, there is no way that could ever be tampered with. The names are correct. The timing is not."

"Well what went wrong? How could the Calling have been triggered early?"

"Truthfully? I don't know. But until I do know more things need to stay as they are. They all need to get as much training as possible and you all need to get to know each other. You need to be my eyes and ears in the meetings with the Platt girl. I don't know how long it will take, Jasper, but I will find out what is going on and I will take my place as Leader when the time is right."

A few more words are exhcanged between them. The younger man comforts the older, and it's a nice moment for all of Us to see as We pull away and let Our Characters be for the night.

Let us take a glance around, shall We?

While Jasper turns down the wrong hallway (The one Aro would disapprove of, the one that leads to the courtyard outside of the gir's dormitories) Alice waits patiently there for her love who is twelve minutes late, shortening the little time they have together.

Carlisle and Esme both sleep soundly in their separate locations: school and city. They are happy and content and truthfully the Characters who have the least to worry about, at least for now, at least until their unrest is required for the thrill of the story.

Emmett stalls sleep as much as he can as he lays in his bed, worried over the state of his Rosalie who can no longer sleep with the window open.

Edward and Bella hesitate outside of her doorway, talking quietly about nothing of true matter, as they both wonder to themselves how long they can put off the hurt this risky relationship will inevitably cause them. It's not wise to push off such things that you know will come to pass, but the way they look at each other helps convince Us that they are ultimately doing what is right. It is not good to keep such Characters as these apart, for they will only be forced to be more violently pulled together again. They promise to tell each other something new, something true about themselves each day, and that is enough for now. That will stall the hurt.

As we pull away even further, Reader, to give our Characters room to rest, we see the last two Paladins still swirling in the tree, still celebrating a new beginning with their dance. If it seems that they have been dancing for too long, my friends, it is becuase they almost have. They will stall the end of their celebration for as long as possible, until all of the gold has faded from the moon and the sky. These two tiny beings will push their time together until the very end of possibility, for the end of their dance is also the end of their glow, the end of their lives.

Isabella has never read about this tradition in a book before, but it would be good for her if she had, my Reader.

For then she would know more of how the Tower Realm works. It is a world of give and take. It is full of beauty, and sadness, and ultimately of balance.

Every new beginning requires an end. Because the only way to begin to live truthfully, is to kill the life full of the lie.

* * *

**This took long, I know. I just cannot force this stuff to come out when I'm not in the right state of mind. **

**Remember that this is a fantasy story as well, so the world I'm creating and the things that live in it are simply what come from my imagination. This story was always intented to be something I wrote as a release for the fantasies in my head, and I will always stay true to that. **

**Thank you to those of who you are coming along with me :)**

**LOVE YOUS**

**-Car**


	8. Woods

**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Woods**_

**Chapter 8 - Part 1 - EPOV**

**"Muddy Waters"**

Damn, I have mud on my shoes.

I decide that tonight, I don't care about the mud. Though usually I would.

I only care about one thing, _one thing_, right now.

I've only cared about this one thing since last night on top of that stone tower watching Bella listen to me tell her to stay away. To leave. To forget me, to forget something that hasn't even officially become anything to remember.

The only thing I can see or think about is that look in her eyes. The one that settled in right after I told her I could never be "normal" for her.

It wasn't pity, or confusion, though both of those were present as well.

The look was distinct _disappointment_.

Which was horrible, obviously, but in my convoluted world it was also a cause for celebration.

Isabella Swan was _disappointed_ that she could not have a relationship with me. Which means that she just might want one.

Granted, she doesn't even know me. She knows the little things I slip her day to day during our strained walks to class. She knows the details of my Remarkability better than ninety five percent of the rest of the world. But she doesn't know what being with me day in and day out is like. The little things, if you will.

Really only Emmett knows what that is truly like. And he still likes me. Loves me as a brother, even. Or so he claims.

I shake my head and try, again, to focus on one thing, _any_thing else besides her damn eyes.

I think about getting ahead on reading.

I think about going down to the hall for a snack. Or to snatch some of Aro's whiskey.

I think about cleaning my shoes.

I'm a very clean guy. It comes with the territory of being isolated. When you have no dinner plans, no dating life, no concept of a normal social world, you take to things like tidiness obsessively.

But I'm starting to think that perhaps Bella would not be so quick to wipe mud off of her shoes and so that may be fun to try.

And then I think about the look in her eyes again, and my thoughts stay there, not even wanting to wander futher. And in the back of my mind I notice that I've unwillingly and unintentionally started treding some pretty muddy water when it comes to all of this business with Bella Swan.

**Chapter 8 - Part 2 - BPOV**

**"The Spill"**

"So... what now? You guys are..."

"Friends, I guess."

"Friends?"

"Friends."

_Friends._

I feel my face scrunching at the odd way that sounds coming from my lips. It's not the word they want to form; not the image of relationship any of me wants to associate with Edward, but I don't have a choice.

The small disapproving grunt that I recieve from Alice confirms that she feels just as I do about this.

It's horrid.

"I don't like that at all, Bella. It's too tragic for my taste. And, wow, I haven't even thought of how awful this must be for Edward. It explains all of the rumors, though. About him being a recluse. Or a mute. Or a reclusive gay mute."

I can't help the laugh that expells from inside of me.

"People think he's gay?" I ask with amusement.

Alice nods enthusiastically and then shrugs within the very same instant.

"Yeah. But I think that theory has been spread mostly by the women around school who want him but never get the time of day from him. You can't _really_ blame them, though. He dresses very nicely. And he's all... pretty. And moody. It's not_ that_ far fethched."

She shrugs again and I kind of frown.

"Ok. But, haven't they ever been just... _looked at _by him? There are absolutely no gay vibes there."

I shiver a little inside, remembering the looks I'm speaking of. The ones where his green eyes turn dark and refuse to stop staring at you like you're a meal, or a prize, or a saviour.

She shrugs again and I frown some more.

"I guess not. No. Definitely not. He barely ever lifted his eyes off the floor before you, Bella."

I ignore how that makes me feel.

_It doesn't matter that he lifts his eyes for me. I wish it could. But it doesn't._

Except in a secret, hidden place it _so _does.

"Well, does he know that people think these things about him? Being gay, and reclusive and all that?"

"I'm sure he does. He can read minds," she says nonchalantly as she shoves a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

I'm starting to think that maybe Alice doesn't really understand how upsetting this all is because I feel like eating popcorn right now would feel like swallowing rocks.

"Oh yeah," I sigh.

I want to say more. I want to say so much more about how unfair that is. Not that being gay is unfair or being percieved that way is wrong, but rather that Edward gets judged every day by everyone around him just because they want to talk to him, or probably flirt with him, and he's had to separate himself from the world because of something that he cannot control. As if it's their job to try and figure him out. As if he's a problem to be solved or something.

It's officially been about twenty hours since my conversation with him in the tower. I've only told Alice about it, just because she trusts me with her secrets about Jasper and she's really the only one I really speak to extensively anyway.

I feel tense. I feel protective of Edward, like I can run into his life and suddenly shield him from all of the people that have been here for years already, trying to label him as something odd, something other than just a guy who wants to live his life in the best way he can. I guess that might make me on the same level as all of them, all the people who want to judge him and label him and change him, but I don't care. I feel like my intentions are at least in his favour.

I feel unnatural for the first time in my life even though I have always been something supernatural.

As if she can sense my unease, Alice suddenly sits up and nods her head towards the door.

"Let's get out of here," she suggests.

I nod and the movement from us getting off the bed knocks the popcorn bowl to the floor. But it's Alice's room and she tells me to leave it so I do. I follow her out the door, not knowing where we are going and not caring.

I just want to do something. Be somewhere. Not here, in the fanciest of dorm rooms, worrying over a boy who I can probably never save. Or have. Or shield.

**Chapter 8 - Part 3 - JPOV**

**"Into the Woods"**

Edward is tense when I show up at his door. I know why.

But I don't comment on it. That's rude.

I'm intrusive by nature, but never rude. Unless the situation calls for it.

He's also swimming with upset and confusion and _pining_.

Oh yes. He's pining for Isabella Swan and I'm smart enough to pick up on that a mile away, even without my unique Remarkability.

"Hey, man, how goes it?" I ask with what I know to be a reassuring, casual smile.

_I'm not here on official "List Business", Edward. I'm here to be a friend. _

Even if Alice did sort of force me into it.

"Hello, Jasper?"

I laugh a little bit at his outright confusion. He cracks a small smile and shrugs. I understand his question. This is odd.

Professors don't normally show up for a casual drop in to a student.

Good thing I loathe normality.

"Yeah, I'm just Jasper right now, I'm afraid. You know, I don't think I'll ever be Professor Whitlock to you, anyway. Aro will see to it that you have someone else for my courses. It would get tricky trying to Profess any of you with our equality on The List and all that."

He nods in understanding and the tension, at least the tension that was due to me randomly showing up at his door, disappears.

So I pull out my flask.

"Can I come in?" I ask with a lift of my brow.

I take a swig just as he realizes he hasn't invited me in yet. He steps away politely to let me into his private suite.

_Oh, Edward. How very different we are._

I take a sweeping glance around the place and can't help but be impressed, in the way that places like this are just damn impressive.

Most things outside of Alice's sheer determination to reach her goals and the way she can take a hit from my flask like a champ don't impress me. It's just a personal thing. I've seen and done a lot of things that are real and fake and I've learned that the balance between the two are way off. Now I only really care about what's real. Material things definitely don't fall under the "real" category.

But as a living being who knows the difference between poverty an luxury, Edward's room sure as hell is impressive, no matter who you are.

"And you've got a view of the girl's dorm tower," I mumble, mostly to myself but partly to him cause I know he can hear me.

"Yeah. The third window down is Bella's."

Ha.

What an interesting automatic response.

I snort a little bit because the immense silence filling the room and the flood of embarassment that he's throwing at me in waves is entertaining.

"You know that for a fact, huh?" I ask with a smirk.

I throw some brotherly love into the air to calm him the heck down. I want him to stop being so damn uptight. We're both guys, and adults. Knowing where your favorite girl's room is located isn't anything worth being embarassed about. I'm actually proud of him. This guy needs to learn to have friends, just casual there-for-you-in-a-bind friends. He's never going to do that if he thinks we're all judging him all the time.

He feels what I'm putting out there and finally smiles at me in the way only guys can share.

"Yes. She keeps her curtains closed most of time. Which is good... I'm not... I don't... you know... I've just noticed that. In the morning they're usually open, though. She reads a lot. A few times Alice has been there."

I nod my approval of his observations and offer him the flask. Our friendship is making some moves, after all. He's trying. That's good.

He declines a hit from the flask, as I knew he would, and then asks me what I'm doing here.

"I don't know, I thought we could hang out," I shrug, "do guy things."

"I'm sorry to break it to you, but I don't really do 'guy things', Jasper. I don't really do anything."

I sigh.

"I know. I've heard. But that doesn't mean you_ can't_. Alice is busy tonight and it's pretty damn boring being a Professor around here. Humor me. We can go build a fire or something."

I'm reaching here. I didn't really come with a schedule. Alice told me to prepare, but damnit her neck was distracting me when I agreed to this little plan she concocted.

"Build a fire? Is that what guys do?" Edward asks with a doubtful laugh.

I'm trying not to, but I can still sense everything he feels with supreme clarity. For some reason it's only easy for me to ignore people's emotions when they are close to me. Like, emotionally close.

Like Alice. Pshh. Piece of cake.

When I make an actual effort to concentrate on what she's feeling it's no problem picking every one of her beautiful little emotions out of the air. But if I ignore poking into the feelings swirling around her then they just sort of mush together and I almost feel normal.

But I do not know Edward Masen that well, not very well at all, so here I am in the middle of all of his heavy feelings, trying to get him to come out and have some "guy time".

I shrug and take another swig from the flask.

"I don't know. But we're guys and it's what we're going to do, so I'm sure it qualifies. Just come on."

**Chapter 8 - Part 4**

_-*- Into the woods We go again, We have to every now and then -*-_

There's no telling why we're on the journey.

But We go anyway, don't We, Reader?

We always go running after our Characters, just like now, just to see where they will bring us to.

Jasper and Edward's steps are quiet, and steady, and (dare I say) quite manly. They are both rather tall and built with overwhelming presence. The forest itself seems to part for these two as they walk side by side through the brush unhurriedly. As if nature itself can sense the importance that is strolling casually along it's spanse, even if this importance has not fully been recognized yet.

These two are not traveling through on some hurried, troubled mission, which makes their walk pleasant for the inhabitants of the woods to observe.

Surely We can tell that this is no rushed errand. We've been spying on their brief dialogue up in Edward's private suite and We are not dashing through the trees with them as We were last We traveled this path. No, this is no sneak for Alice and Jasper, it's nothing even remotely close to that.

This is an effort to help a friend. To become a friend, and hopefully gain one in return.

(At least that's what Alice told Jasper it was to be.)

"So I should probably just come out and tell you that I'm with Alice. Intimately."

Edward smirks to himself and nods his head at Jasper's blunt admission.

"I picked that up. She likes to think about you. A lot."

"Does she?"

Jasper's chuckle ruffles the leaves and We watch them briefly as they continue to dance even after the sound has faded from the air. You see, they like Jasper so very much. They can't help but celebrate his sounds.

We are deep into the woods now, getting ever closer to the edge of the world where things like trees don't feel very much and the edge of another world where they do. Here they start to know who is amongst them, and they never object to Jasper bringing his little pixie around. They aren't very sure at first of Edward, until they get a better feel of him. Then word starts to spread through their branches... they all know for certain _he_ is welcome to sit beneath their canopies as well, or walk among their low hanging limbs. For he is quite the Remarkable and when you are an entity that doesn't get to feel much, you love to soak in that which feels important.

I didn't mean to distract from Jasper's chuckle, though. My apologies, Dear Reader.

We go back to the small moment that the sound drifts around them and the two men share a look of understanding. They love the idea of women thinking about them, at least the women that they, too, think about often.

"How long have you two been together?" Edward asks, mostly just out of automatic politeness before he takes a better look inside himself and finds that he is curiously slightly curious about someone else's life.

"It's been a while. Longer than it probably should be, really. I've been around the Tower High for five years now. She's been around it her whole life; grew up here with Aro's brother acting as her dad and all that. The first time I saw her I was just drawn to her. Like, completely. It doesn't make any sense but she says it was the same for her so..."

The casual shrug of Jasper's shoulders contradicts the strict tightening of his heart. Looking back into his memory We can see the moment he speaks of, when the Traveler met his anchor. And We know that it is nothing anywhere near casual, that Alice and Jasper both changed the day they met. The whole world changed the day they met. But We can be assured that everyone involved in this conversation will let his feigned casuality go because now is not the time to question why we all, Readers and Characters alike, don't give weight to every heavy thing in our lives all of the time.

"Was it like losing a part of yourself?" Edward wonders aloud, thinking of how he'd describe seeing Bella for the first time.

The crease in his brow is troubling, I know. He is always thinking so hard.

"Nah. No. Man... it was like finding a part of myself. But I didn't know I was missing anything before."

"Hmm."

Edward ponders this and the crease in his brow deepens, but only for a second. He thinks that he knows exactly what Jasper is talking about, but that he will never have the chance to grasp onto the missing piece of him he's stumbled upon.

"Do you have any restrictions in your Remarkability?" he asks his new friend.

For, when you go into details of your Remarkability you better be doing it with a friend. Otherwise secrets of your demise could spread, and in the world of the Tower that is never what you want.

"I do not. No restrictions, no stipulations. I'm a free bird."

"Must be nice."

"Why? Do you?"

A long sigh falls from Edward's lips and We all battle to catch it. Me, You, the wind, the leaves... We are all far too delighted to possess anything that comes from him.

It's a great big part of him, though. So the need to grasp it makes sense. He is so full of these laboured sighs, perhaps all he ever has been is one big breath waiting to be let out.

"I do. I cannot touch anyone else. I've been living without physical human interaction since my Incident."

"That's rough. I do remember Aro mentioning somthing like that, though. Marcus really had a lot to say about you before his disappearance, I guess."

"So I've been told. Apparently the most gifted prophet in the world, the brother of The Arrow himself, had a handful of obsessions: His wife, his Remarkability, Alice, and fortellings of me."

The tone that Edward uses to speak of such things as Marcus and his obsessions is mocking. He's heard it so many times from Aro that he can hardly be as interested in it as he once was. What good is it being the obsession of a great Remarkable who has been erased from the world for over a decade? There's no one around to answer his questions now.

We can see the air turning bitter around him as he thinks of this, just as Jasper can feel it.

Luckily for all of us, We've arrived at Jasper's intended destination.

The men stop walking as Jasper informs Edward that they have arrived to the fire pit.

As We walk around this small clearing We glance down, and sure enough there it is, Reader. The small circle of ashed out remains surrounded by large, marvelous rocks.

"This place is great Jasper, I didn't even know this was back here," Edward comments.

"Not many do, man. Students aren't encouraged to wander this far away from the school and none of the Professors can be bothered to do anything that might dirty their clothes."

Jasper's eyes roll. Edward chuckles. We all, once again, race to capture the sound for our own.

"It's a great meadow, so private," Edward comments softly as Jasper starts lighting the fire.

As a boy who knows too much about privacy, this is a signifigant find for our Edward. He likes the thought of being able to hide outside. He likes how, even in the dark, the flowers are bright and the grass is dancing. None of these things matter to boys outloud, so it's rather lucky We can see inside their thoughts just now.

"Yeah, uh. Alice and I come here a lot. It's easier to hide here, where no one goes."

He stikes up a match and flames begin to dance on the wood within the circle of rocks. Edward turns towards the heat and sits on a large rock facing Jasper who has seated himself on an overturned log. We can move in around them, become part of the circle, and the trees envy us for being able to get so close as We settle in.

"So, you come here often?" Edward asks.

"Is that a pick up line Mr. Masen? Cause I do believe I've already informed you that I'm taken."

Chuckles.

"Seriously, have you set this all up?"

Edward gestures to the obviously worn area around the fire pit. The matted down grass, the cleared dirt circle, the hole in the tree where thin sticks and and a box of matches reside.

"Yeah. Since no one comes back here I've sort of claimed it as my own. The fire pit, the tree, the meadow. Being outside helps me not feel so... trapped."

"Even with Alice around, you feel trapped?"

"Well, yeah. She's made everything different for me, better, but even an anchor can't keep a ship from _wanting_ to do what it's intended to do. Wander."

Edward nods. We all sit, entranced by the fire and by the way life gives us twists and pulls in forms of other people, other desires, and other duties.

**BPOV**

**"**Alice, is this even safe? Or allowed?"

I'm nervous. Nervous and feeling a lot less ok about just getting up and following Alice around school grounds late at night.

Suddenly I'm really worried about the spilled popcorn in her room. We should go back. Pick it up. Then proceed to do something that couldn't have any possibility of resulting in expulsion from school.

"It's fine, Bella. I've traveled this path a thousand times and no one has ever been around."

I take a deep breath and just trust her. This is what I wanted. I wanted to do something to get my mind off of Edward so I might as well embrace the chance that's being given me to do just that.

I take a few steps and move a few tree branches out of the way. Then I look up when I suddenly hear two familiar voices very clearly, very close.

Before I can quesiton Alice about my suspicions we come to a clearing.

I see a fire, I see a large tree, I see Jasper and I then see_ Edward _even though, really, I know I saw him first.

I kick Alice in the shin a little bit, for bringing me our here and not warning me that _he_ would be here. My hair is in a ponytail and I have a hoodie on.

I notice that he has one on, too. I've never seen him dressed so casually. It works for him. Everything works for him.

_Everything except for me._

Suddenly Alice is glaring at me for kicking her, I'm glaring at her for tricking me, Jasper is happily greeting everyone, Edward is standing, and it seems as if even the trees are pulling back in surprise at this little gathering.

"Ladies! How nice of you to join us. Please, sit."

Jasper gestures to the various rocks and logs set around the small fire pit he and Edward are on either side of.

Alice throws me one more threatening look (maybe I kicked her harder than I thought) and then smiles, winks, and flits over to Jasper's side.

He bends and kisses her. She grabs his hand.

I look at Edward and want to throw up.

But his smile in sincere and warm when it lights up his face and he looks at the log next to him, then back to me, and I know that I will go and sit there even before my feet start moving.

"Was this planned, Alice?" I accuse as I sit down and notice how close I am to Edward. Closer than I thought I would be. Our hoodie strings could tie together if we reached them far enough.

"Uh. No?"

"Don't lie, darlin'."

Thank the Tower for Jasper and his honestly.

I glare at her over the fire. She winks at me again, hardly affected by my upset.

Of course she planned this.

"This is nice, though, don't you think, Bella? Hanging out like friends. No prude Professors lingering in the hallways. No heavy business about The List..."

"It is a bit of a relief to just be," Edward admits.

He looks for a second like he hates himself for sounding so vounerable. But his face clears and I'm certain that he knows we all understand him, what he goes through, and how nice it must be for him to be with people who really know him and who he can actually relax around.

So I make an effort to relax, too. I smile at Alice, making sure it reaches my eyes, and decide that I can just_ be_ with these people, with Edward, because that comfortable level of friendship is probably the most signifigant thing he could ever receive.

"Is this your secret hideout, Jasper?" I ask. This place looks so much like him. It's outside and serparate, but comfortable and welcoming.

"This is where I sneak away to with Alice."

"Hmm. Well, I must admit, I'm a little jealous you snuck here with Edward, mister."

"You should be worried, Ali. He definitely tried to pick me up earlier."

The boys share a smile and a quick laugh. Edward glances at me and catches me mid smile. I think his brightens. Then I think mine does. Then the air between us gets hot, though the fire has not flared at all.

"Have you noticed the meadow?" Edward asks, gesturing around us, sort of behind me, to the surrounding area.

I cannot say, _"No, I've only noticed you since we got here,"_ so instead I look around.

It's lovely. It's open and full of wild flowers and fresh air.

"Wow, it's gorgeous. You two are lucky you get to share this so often," I say sincerely to the now cuddled up couple across from me.

Alice takes a sip from Jasper's flask and nods.

"It's perfect for getting away. You two should use it."

She's so bold, it's upsetting.

Edward and I glance at each other.

Are we both thinking about how we'd love to use it as Alice and Jasper do? As more than just friends escaping. As two people who seek time alone together for... _more_.

I know that's what I'm thinking.

Jasper clears the tension from the air. I feel bad. He must hate being around Edward and I. We are emotional messes. I remind myself of my decsion to just be Edward's easy friend. That should help everyone.

"It's an excellent place to come alone and read, or write, or just think," he adds, further removing tension from Alice's obvious suggestion that we should come here together as they do.

Minutes pass and they are all filled with small talk between the four of us. A few times we laugh, sharing small stories of our first experiences at the Tower High.

Eventually, and I don't know how but I do know that it's something I'm starting to notice is to be expected with Alice and Jasper, they are in their own little world, whispering and stealing kisses and wandering off into the meadow.

And then it's just Edward and I with the fire and the trees that all seem to be leaning in too closely now.

"How are you?" he finally asks me, after the silence of us being alone gets hot.

"I'm fine?"

It's a question. I don't know why but I think the important thing we both pick up on is that it's not a statement. I'm not sure I'm fine.

He sighs heavily.

I look up and he's looking straight at me with that stare that makes me certain he can't be gay.

"I'm sorry..."

"Edward, no apologizing. Look, we can be friends-"

"Can we?"

His tone is harsh. His stare is darker. The flames are taller and the trees are moving in the wind, as if upset.

"I want to be."

"I do too."

He still sounds upset, harsh and wronged.

I sigh far less heavily than he did and pull up everything I have inside of me that wants to help him out, be something for him that no one else can be.

"Then let's just do that. We'll always have this... understanding between us, Edward. We can't deny what we feel or what we've already said. But we are Remarkables. We are destined to deal with difficult things. You and I being friends, that will probably be a cake walk after our mission with The List gets going."

He nods and smiles softly. I can tell he wants to believe, but doesn't. Which is a shame because I was really counting on his confidence in my words to boost my own.

"You're right. It's just going to take some getting used to, I suppose."

I nod.

"And you'll have to fogive me, Bella, if I slip up in our friendship once in a while."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I see you as so much more. I don't see how getting to know you better will hinder that. I won't continue to tell you, but I want you to know, to have no doubts..."

I look to the fire and then back at him. He stays looking at me, never faltering his gaze.

"No doubts about what?" I finally push.

"About how you make me feel. You have no idea just what you showing up here tonight so unexpectedly did to me."

I can't respond. I want him to keep talking. I don't want to discourage this, though I know I should.

The second the next words leave him mouth, I'm so glad I don't.

"I will follow our rules. We don't have a choice. But you have to understand, Bella. I have no control over the things that thrill me."

* * *

**The standard apologies apply. Real life... it's too real.**

**Let me know if you are still there. I _so _hope so, and I _so_ hope you are continuing to enjoy this :)**

**LOVE YOUS!**

**-Car**


	9. Friends

**THE TOWER OF THE SKY**

_**Friends**_

**Chapter 9 - Part 1 - BPOV**

It's late and I'm very bored.

It's Friday. Friday night is traditionally not supposed to be a boring night. It is, perhaps, usually percieved as the most fun night of them all. The first night of freedom from the work you've done all week.

In my life, in my world, that's hardly been the case.

I wasn't too sociable in high school. I never wanted to attend the various parties I was invited to. I knew that I was different from all of the normal people around me and I longed to be around those who desired the same sort of recreation that I did. I had no interest in drinking underage, or smoking anything, or making a fool out of myself for the sake of undermining authority. It was all very "high school" and I was done with it before it even began.

But perhaps I was only around the wrong sort of people who engaged in those activities in the wrong sort of way.

Because when Jasper and Alice come bursting into my room, clearly intoxicated with whatever the heck it is he keeps in that flask of his, I'm not annoyed at all.

"Well look what we have here, m'lady. A beautiful Bella."

"Indeed we do, my love! How very lucky of us!"

They are so happy I can't help but smile. They are speaking a little louder than they should be, but it's not so loud that it's upsetting. I want to join in their glee. I want to be a part of their smiles and twinkling eyes.

"What are you two up to?" I ask from in between both of them as they sandwich me in a hug.

"We were hanging out-"

"Making out."

"Haning out, making out, loving out... call it what you will, me and my lovely little Alice here were _together_, and everything was wonderful. While we adore our stolen alone time, we just couldn't keep it to ourselves. We had to come share it with our favorite."

Alice giggles and taps my nose with her finger.

"Me? How did I become your favorite?" I ask, looking back and forth between both of their blissed faces.

I can smell something strong on their breath and Jasper is holding the flask with the top unscrewed so it's not surprising that the scent is wafting around us generously. It smells strong and sweet, unlike any alcohol I've ever been around before. Not that I've ever been around much.

"Who else could be our favorite, silly?" Alice asks me through yet another giggle.

They release me from their twin hold and both plop down on my unmade bed.

"Could it be Emmett with his too-large voice and overbearing presence?" Jasper asks dramatically.

"Of course not," Alice scoffs daintily. "He's a big love, but not fit for our favorite spot."

"How could it be Carlisle? His quiet manners are offensive to me at times."

"I love the gentlemanly example he is, but we need someone with at least a itsy-bitsy wild streak to be number one."

Alice holds up her finger, emphasizing the "one" and Jasper kisses it right before he speaks again.

"It could not be miss Rose, with all her thorns bared. Nor could it be the sweet Esme, the female companion to our bore of a gentleman," he continues with a dismissive wave of his hand.

I'm laughing at them, really really laughing at how happy they are making me, and this seems to please them.

"We of course care for both of them greatly, but sharpness and softness in excess are not for Jasper and I. Not for the things we love most of all."

"And then there's Edward," Jasper continues. "He's got promise but, come on. How could we put the lonely heart throb above you, miss Bella? That would be absurd. He's my top guy as of late, but he's not first place material for me and my lady."

"Though this past week he's made the running close. Perhaps you two could share the spot someday..."

I catch the sly wink that Alice has thrown my way. She's not making any of the complicated things between Edward and I any less complicated, because she keeps encouraging a romantic relationship that we just can't have.

I like it, though, the thought that someone (especially someone who knows the whole truth) can stand to have some faith.

Edward and I have all but given up hope for what we could be. Ever since the impromtu bonfire by the meadow last weekend we've been... closer. We have an understanding about our relationship limitations that was strained at first but has now slipped into comfortable, painfully accepted reality.

Neither of us can control how we feel for each other, true. But we can control our actions, at least most of the time. And we have to. Fate has decided our future together for us already, it seems.

So for the past week we've lived under the guise that we are nothing more than two people becoming better friends. The gazes shared across rooms are intense. I can feel him looking at me in sixth every single day and I want to reach out and put my hands on him constantly. But we've been controlling it and even having fun getting to know each other. He is not so uptight and closed off as he was before. Everyday now he's made me laugh as we walk to class together. He's turning out to be witty and incredibly kind. He's also becoming a running faucet of information about his life, asking me for details about mine as well. We've covered our childhoods and our hobbies. We've discussed literature, music, and beliefs. Since there is a strong supernatural connection between us already a normal, platonic connection has been swift and strong as well. I feel like we are real friends now, moving past this unexplainable attraction into something that can exist outside of (and in spite of) whatever we have that makes wood burn.

It's not my ideal way of communing with him, but it's all I can have so I'll take it. Plus, he seems happier. Jessica Stanley still gives me warning looks but she hasn't brought up staying away from him anymore. She almost swallowed her tongue the other day when Edward actually threw a smile her way, so I think that maybe she doesn't mind me getting a bit closer to him if she'll reap a few small benefits from it as well.

Our other friendships are developing quickly as well. For me it's nice. I have never had any close friends at all but I'm finding that having only a few is amazingly satisfying. For Edward I think this is monumental. His entire life he's not been close to anyone outside of Emmett (who, from my understanding practically forced his friendship on him). I've gotten to know Emmett for the giant, tough teddy bear that he is and Edward's even let Carlisle in a bit. It turns out they have a lot in common and can delve into long conversations with ease as they stroll down the Tower High's stony corridors. We cannot acknowledge Jasper in the halls of the school for what he is to us - a friend - but after school hours he sneaks in time and has proven to be one of the most unique, most fun people I have ever met. He's really helping Edward break out of the certain stiffness he's developed from being isolated for so long, too. For that I'll be forever grateful.

We've had one meeting in the Platt's cabin, last week after bon fire night, where we didn't get much discussing of The List done, at all. We were too busy talking and chuckling with each other. It was nice. Even Rosalie smiles around us now.

I shake my head at the two crazies sitting merrily on my bed. They are amazing, and if not for Edward they would be my very favorites, too.

I don't tell them that. I don't like speaking of my adoration of him out loud.

Instead I thank them for my placement at the top of their list and ask what is it they are sucking from the shiny, trusty flask.

"It's called Azuretha. Home made," Alice smiles brightly. "I made it."

"You make it yourself?"

"Yes ma'am. My father taught me how."

"Marcus?"

"Yes, silly. Before he up and disappeared," she's speaking causally, still with a happy tone even though the mention of this shoots something dark through her eyes,"he taught me to brew this yummyness up."

"Isn't it alcoholic?"

Marcus, Aro's brother and Alice's adoptive father, taught her how to make an alcoholic brew before he disappeared? She was eleven when that happened...

"Sure is. Oh, Bella, stop looking so shocked. I didn't start drinking it until I was sixteen. And even then, not heavily. Not until Mr. Whitlock came around more often."

Mr. Whitlock winks at me and takes another swig of the Azuretha. He is always drinking it.

"It still seems odd, you have to admit. Even in the Tower World a child brewing alcoholic concoctions doesn't seem right."

"There's more to it," she sighs. "Marcus was a prophet, as you and everyone in this world probably already knows. One day he came to me, interrupting the dance I was creating with the fairies in the backyeard, and he told me as he was teaching me how to brew something special. He emphasized that it was important for me to always remember how to make it. He told me he saw that I would need it someday. For someone I love."

The instant the word love falls out of her mouth her eyes are on Jasper, who smiles sincerely and looks back at her.

I'm not eager to watch them share one of their _moments_, so I rudely interrupt it. I'm still slightly baffled by the idea of alcohol saving someone anyway.

"He prophecised that you would need alcohol to save Jasper?"

My words fall out of my mouth slowly and my tone is so doubtful they do break their little lovey-eye fest and turn to me.

"No, Bella. Azuretha is not_ just _alcohol-"

"Though it does share many of the same properties. And benefits," Jasper smirks.

"True. But it's more. It's main ingredient, the most unique one, is the blue petals of the Night Tree. They hold special properties that work with the normal alcohol to make it a healant."

The Night Tree changes things. It's the very same tree Edward and I watched together from the Viewing Tower what now felt like years ago. When we were awkward and careful together. When we were just admitting what we felt.

It's where the Paladins do their dance and make the sky golden. I wasn't aware it had any flowers.

"I didn't know that, about the flowers or their ability to heal."

She nods her head and smiles sweetly as one of her hands comes up and pats Jasper's cheek.

"If my father foresaw that I needed to know how to make it so save my love, well, I'll make it for the rest of my life no matter what. I'm not taking chances on losing this one."

"That's why you always have the flask," I comment, my tone filled with understanding and amusement as I nod to Jasper's hand.

"Yeah, that. And it's damn good."

"Can I try some?"

Both of their faces light up instantly.

Jasper hands over the flask and it feels three fourths full. They must have a reserve supply at one of their places. Or both. Because unless this stuff is insanely strong there's no way the little amount that's gone has made them this silly.

I can smell the strong sweetness better with the flask in hand. It's a nice scent. Bold and kind of a dark sweet.

I put it to my lips and sip.

And it's amazing.

I've never tasted anything so great before in my life.

"Wow, that's really good," I compliment. "I always thought that a healing product would have to taste horrible, to counter act the good it did for your body."

Jasper chuckles as I take another sip and hand back the flask.

"There's no such thing as bad when it comes to this stuff. Alice is a master at making it, and to assure her that I'm not going to get harmed I consume it like a good boy."

We all laugh and Alice pats Jasper on the head. I love these two. And I love the Azuretha.

I want to share it with Edward. I already feel lighter and anything that makes me feel good makes me think of him.

"Let's go find Edward," I suggest out loud.

"You read my mind, Bella. Which is ironic, since we're talking about Edward."

We get up and leave my room, laughing all the way out my door.

The halls of the Tower High are fairly busy at this time on a Friday night. People are visitng the rooms of other students, trying to form plans for the evening and the rest of the weekend. This means that Jasper has to leave our side and travel a different, more secluded way, so as not to be spotted with us by other occupants of the school. It would be questionable, at best.

Alice twirls me around through the halls, making me dance with her to music only the two of us can here. Everyone here knows her by now, so none of them judge our behavior. She is this jovial without the influence of Azuretha. We move briskly towards our destination with a few people saying hello and wishing us a happy weekend along the way.

Half way down the final hall in the boy's corridor that leads right to Edward's room, just as we come in sight of his door, we are stopped by a boy with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He's cute and familiar looking even though I know I have never met him before.

I'm trying to decide if we have a class together or if he's sat near me in the dining hall or something as he begins to speak to us.

"Hello Alice," he says in a voice that is fairly smooth and incredibly inviting. A fuzzy, distant part of my mind wants me to remember where I've heard it before, but more of me is arguing that I haven't. I do not know this boy.

"Michael! Hello. I would ask you how you are doing but I can see that you are well."

He nods and smiles shyly, first at me for some reason and then at her.

"Indeed I am. I trust you are doing good as well, you usually are. Who is this?"

He quickly turns the conversation to me and I put my hand in the one he has stretched out towards me as he asked Alice who I am.

"Bella Swan," I introduce myself.

His eyes are so kind and I really, really want to figure out why he looks so familiar to me because I'd feel bad for forgetting someone this nice.

"You're looking at me rather strangely, Bella Swan," he says with a warm smile. "I'm Michael Newton. Well, just Mike, really."

"I'm sorry," I say as I take my hand back from his warm one. "I'm not trying to be rude, but you look-"

"So familiar," both Mike and Alice finish for me. They both begin laughing and now I'm just more confused.

"It's my Remarkability, Bella," he says, leaning in closer to me with his bright eyes steady on my face. "I'm a very familiar person to everyone. It helps relationships move along rather nicely, since everyone I come across feels quite comfortable around me."

"Oh, wow. So what's your Class, then?" I ask curiously.

He's definitely not a Toucher, I felt like I knew him before I took his hand. He also cannot be a Shield, it doesn't fit with his ability and I also would have met him during Shield Initiation the first week of classes. Composer had to be out, he didn't physically create anything.

That narrows it down to Breacher or Gateway, depending on the details of his ability. If he's a Breacher only then that means that he cannot control what his familiarity to other people means to them. He can only push something from himself onto them, breaching the invisible block we all have around us that keeps us separate from and immune to other people. If he's a Gateway as well then he can enter that invisible wall and mess around with what's behind it, or at the very least become a part of it actively. Like Alice can, under certain circumstances, with her visions. Or how Edward can not only hear people's minds, but through his Gateway capabilities he can see through their eyes, effectively getting past that barrier and into their heads for his own purposes.

"I'm a Gateway, firstly. I feel familiar to everyone, I can breach, but I can also push an actual memory on you if I wish. I can make you _know_ where you remember me from even if we've never seen each other at all before."

"That's such a nice Remarkability," I say with a smile. "It's almost refreshing. Not harsh at all."

"Well, it's not normally," Mike says as his own kind smile turns a little wicked at the edges,"but everything can be used for destruction, Bella. Even something that seems nice on the outside."

His words seem forboding but I don't have much of a chance to respond because suddenly the air around me is crackling.

_Edward._

"Who is this?"

His voice is not as light as I've gotten used to it being. It's a little cold and exceedingly sharp.

I still love the sound of it, though. And I find it comforting that even this harder version of his voice feels more familiar to me than any Remarkability of Mike Newton's.

"This is Michael Newton," Alice replies cheerily.

I'm still staring at Edward. It still takes me a few moments to get used to how much I like looking at him when he's around.

He's looking at me, too. Not at Mike. And he keeps looking at me until Mike reaches out his hand and introduces himself.

"Hey, yeah. I'm Mike. You're Edward, right?"

Edaward glares at Mike's hand but only for a small second. I don't even think anyone caught the malicious look except for me, because I always study him so closely.

Edward sticks his hands in his pockets, making it clear he will not be reaching out and shaking Mike's offered hand.

"Yes, Edward Masen. It's nice to meet you. How to earn the good fortune of the company of these lovely ladies? I trust you're all having a nice evening together."

Mike draws his hand back and his brow furrows a little bit. I think he's thrown off by Edward's refusal to shake hand paired with his sudden golden manners.

Edward's eyes drift from Mike back over to me as he speaks. Now his gaze is more curious and suspicious than anything. I start shaking my head "no" just as Mike responds.

"No, we haven't been hanging out. I just ran into them a moment ago. I know Alice from a Gateway orientation we were in together when we first arrived and from, well... just from her being Alice, I guess. I just bet Bella."

Alice and I laugh at his explanation of knowing her just for her. That's true of so many people. Edward's eyes narrow just slightly as I laugh but it doesn't stop me. It only makes me sad that he is not joining in.

"We were on our way to your room, actually," I say with a smile, hoping to coax one from the mouth that I love to see turned up so much.

There it is.

He smiles triumphantly now, and his green eyes are just as bright as Mike's baby blues. I forgot that perhaps Mike Newton's presence has put him on edge. He's so new to this friends thing, but he's doing so good at being comfortable around our new friends that I briefly forgot how strangers are a big deal to him. He doesn't "do" friendly. He doesn't have very much experience with swift camaraderie. Even with someone who's Remarkability is tailored for just that.

"We should get going then. To my room."

Edward nods his head back towards his door as Alice and I say a quick goodbye to Mike. Edward raises his hand and waves it once, effectively dismissing our new acquaintance.

When we enter Edward's private, elaborate, impressive suite Jasper is already there sitting on the bed.

"You're lucky I heard you sneak in here," Edward says, playfully glaring at Jasper where he has perched on top of a large wooden desk.

"Am I? What would you have done if you hadn't heard me? Breached me to death?"

Alice jumps up next to Jasper on the desk and I take a seat in a rather large, plush maroon chair sitting in the corner.

Edward wiggles his fingers in Jasper's direction and his expression turns dark for a second.

"Oh, right. The lightening. Forgot," Jasper chuckles.

All four of us laugh, which is not unusual. We laugh often. It's so nice.

"Not that I'm complaining," Edward begins, looking over at me as he speaks,"but what brings the three of you to my room?"

"It's Friday night," Alice exclaims with a shrug. "We need some fun."

"And you thought of me?"

It's cute how surprised he looks. He's not just looking at me, either. He wants confirmation from the other two as well. His eyes are wide and he's sincerely shocked, which is absurd considering we've all been having fun together for the past week.

"Of course," I scoff quickly. For some unhealthy reason_ I_ want to be the one to confirm that we thought of him. That I thought of him.

"Well I hate to let you all down, but there is very little fun to be found here," he says solemnly as he gestures briefly around his room.

"Oh, Ed. You don't get it, man. The fun isn't in the place, it's in the company."

"And the Azuretha."

Jasper lifts the flask in the air to punctuate Alice's mentioning of it. He unscrews the top and takes a swig before passing it to the pixie girl beside him. She closes the top and tosses it to me across the room. Edward's eyes follow it and then meet my own as I unscrew the top and take a sip for myself.

"I'm guessing this Azuretha is alcoholic."

"Mmhmm. And it heals people," Alice says proudly.

"Marcus taught her to make it," I explain, knowing that that fact will make it more interesting, if not appealing, to Edward.

He reaches for the flask and I pass it to him. I accidentially notice how close our fingers get to touching as he carefully takes it from my grasp.

_So close. _

He sniffs the opening and then takes a hit. His eyes light up and then his face scrunches.

"That is the sweetest thing I have ever tasted," he says as he examines the flask, as if he can see through the silver and into the liquid within.

"Not one for sweet things?" Jasper teases.

"Not in abundance," Edward laughs, "not like this. It's very good, but I prefer something richer."

He stands up from where he was leaning on the wall right next to my chair and hands Jasper back the flask as he pulls open a cabinet door on a small nightstand next to the big desk. From it he produces a crystal bottle full of a dark brown liquid.

"That's Aro's scotch," Jasper chokes, pointing in near disbelief of what he's seeing. "Is that Aro's scotch, Edward?"

"It's one of his bottles, yes," Edward casually admits as he uncorks the top and begins pouring some in a glass he's also make appear from the cabinet.

"That shit's good. And strong."

"Does he share it with you often?" Edward asks Jasper with a sideways glance as he finishes pouring.

"No, not often. But more than most, I'd say. Not many professors share much of anything with Aro. He has this distance thing he likes to keep up. Things between us are a bit different, though, so... you know. I've had it with him on maybe three occasions. Celebratory occasions. Making The List was one of them."

Edward nods and lifts the glass up to his mouth to take a sip. Before he completes the motion he glances at me and silently offers me the glass. I shake my head and he proceeds with the motion.

"I'm seriously curious, though. How'd you get your hands on that?"

Edward walks back over to the side of the room that I'm on. This time he sits on the arm of the chair I'm sitting in. Two people could sit comfortably in this chair. It'd be close and snuggly, but it'd be comfortable, so he's not on top of me or anything. But he's close. And it's warm with him there.

He smirks as he sips again.

"Heidi and I have a certain... _understanding_."

The way he drawls out the words makes me nauseous. They are all clever sounding, and innuendo-esque, and I've never seen or heard of a Heidi before but she's instantly this beautiful goddess in my head and I want to break her gorgeous neck. I'm ragefull. I'm suspicious. I'm jealous.

I'm going to puke because he's still smirking, sharing something manish with Jasper who is smirking as well.

"Heidi is a good person to have an understanding with. Nice work, my man."

"Who the hell is Heidi?"

I can't help it. The words spill from my mouth and they do not sound calm or innocently curious. I try and work my face out of the contorted way it feels before Edward's eyes come back to me but I'm not sure how successful I am. I glance at Alice and she looks sympathetic. Of course she caught my weak, envy-filled moment. She catches everything.

"Heidi is Aro's secretary of sorts," Jasper responds as if she's not some Edward-seducing temptress. "She takes care of all the paperwork and boring odd jobs that running a school such as this requires. She's the only non-Remarkable at the Tower High, actually. But what she lacks in supernatural ability she makes up in supernatural beauty, I have to say. She's damn smart, too. Aro's no fool with who he lets in these doors. "

I don't know why, but hearing that she's not a Remarkably makes me feel a tiny bit better. But I'm talking teensie, tiny.

The rest of that stuff about her being as much of a bombshell as I suspected is not helping my nausea. Nor is that part about her actually having a brain. I instantly start picking at the turquoise nailpolish that's already began to chip. It's a nervous habit that I hate and it's not even soothing me right now.

Heidi probably has long, red, drag-me-all-over-your-body nails.

Ugh.

I don't look up at Edward. I can still see his satisfied smirk in my mind and it's still making me feel sick.

"I only know her as well as I do because my first year here I spent a great deal of time being summond to Aro's office. There was a lot of waiting involved in that, and Heidi's desk is located directly outside of Aro's main work space. We spoke a lot through that, and that alone. She kept me company while I sat in a chair across from her desk. Before _you_, any of you, I had no real connection with anyone, Bella. No matter how they perceived me. No matter what material benefits I may have reaped."

I feel a little calmed by the way he's leaning down, speaking softly to me, as if these words aren't important for any ears but mine. I glance past him and see Alice and Jasper engaged in their own little discussion. It's like Edward is defending himself to me, like he needs to. I know that technically he doesn't but I appreciate that he's picked up on what I was feeling and does anyway.

"You don't owe me an explanation, Edward. I just... I was just caught off guard," I say back quietly. Sadly.

"I may not owe you anything, but I'll always be honoured to give you whatever I can to keep you from getting upset."

I swoon inwardly and smile outwardly at this boy. This peculiar boy who can be hard and cold in the hallway, confident and cocky in a conversation about other women, and then kind and considerate in a moment when he feels he's upset me.

"Thank you," is all I say back. Because, come on. Let's be honest. He knows what I was thinking about him and Heidi, he knows how he portrayed his "understanding" with her, and if he feels bad that I have an emotional reaction to that then I am grateful to him for fixing it.

More of the ngiht passes smoothly after that. Edward eventually drains his glass and refills it. He comes directly back to the arm of the chair and sits close to me while on it. During one conversation where Alice is telling a story of growing up around the Tower High Edward absent mindedly hands me the glass of scotch, as if we've been casually sharing it all night.

I eye it for a moment and then take it from him, eager to have my lips touch a space his just recently vacated.

Thus begins our game.

We pass the glass back and forth for the next hour or so and continue to lounge and laugh with our friends. The glass gets refilled once more, and drained, and by the time Edward is ready to refill it again I'm laughing at the way Alice blows kisses at me every few minutes and Edward had gotten distracted and is standing on his bed as he retells the first time lightening appeared from his hands.

He raises his arms up to help describe the clear night sky and his shirt goes with the motion. I see the skin of his sides and of his stomach and I feel hot. Really, really hot, like more than burning pencil hot.

Everything about him is unfair. Marvelous, and tempting, and ridiculously unfair.

"...And then I got really very angry at the absurd notion that I didn't know what I was doing. I was an orphan, yes. But I was not an imbecile-"

_BANG!_

In the middle of Edward's sentence the door to his room flies open and hits the wall. It shuts just as quickly, with a smaller bang, and suddenly Emmett, Rosalie, Carlisle, and Esme are in Edward's room.

"What's going on?" Edward asks, flustered and still on top of his bed with his arms raised.

"Uh, I could ask you the same thing," Emmett replies with a boom of a laugh. He was rushing around the bed but has now stopped and is giving Edward a very bemused look.

"Emmett, we don't have time," Rosalie says.

"Right. Eddie, get off the bed. We have to get out of here. Now."

"Why?" Edward asks with alarm. He's still on the bed but his arms are at his sides now.

"Yeah, why the urgency?" Jasper asks as he scoots off of the desk. "Is it because your girlfriend and the Non-Remarkable here are on school grounds?"

I can see a change in him. He's less relaxed than usual but still menacing as he calculates all four of them.

"We got caught," Emmett admits as he goes back to moving quickly through the room and over to the smallish window on the side of the wall facing the forest. He begins to open it and that prompts Edward to finally get off of his bed.

"Got caught doing what?" Edward asks.

"We got caught having visitors," Carlisle chimes in. His gentle voice is on edge. He's worried. I can see it all over my quiet friend's face. This is a terror for him. He never does anything wrong.

At least he never did before his Esme came along.

She smiles at me and waves a little bit, always more inviting than her cousin.

"Ok, it's not too far down. Thank God you are on the first floor, brother," Emmett says as he sticks his head out of the now open window.

"Emmett, stop. What are you doing?" Edward is worried now, too. He rushes over to his large friend.

"I told you, we have to get out of here, we got caught."

"Why did you come to my room?"

"They don't suspect you of anything, you're good. They know I know you but they'll look here last. We need to get away. Alec is the only one who saw something, and it was only for a second so his word against mine probably wouldn't be enough to hold up, but he's no doubt on the hunt now for actual proof. You know what the penalty is for harboring outsiders, dude. It's bad. List or no List, at the very least Alec will get me kicked out of tutoring the new Shields. worse will happen to Carlisle since he has no outward standing other than a normal student. I won't even mention what they will do to Rose and Esme if we're all caught, which is far more important than any punishment we'd receive."

He's serious and we can all feel it. I've been warned of bringing outsiders into the castle-esque walls of the school. It's forbidden. They would be in major trouble if they got caught, really physically caught, which apparently they very nearly have been.

Everyone is on their feet now, facing the window. Edward is loking very displeased with Emmett and the rest of us are just plain apprehensive.

"Please, Edward. We cannot let this mistake harm the girls."

Carlisle's pleading breaks Edward down. He's probably more immune to Emmett's shinanigans than the rest of us, and therefore has a harder time helping him out of them. Nothing more is said from any of us though, because at that moment there is a knock on the door.

"Open up Mr. Masen!"

"Crap. Sorry kids, the conference is over. We gotta move."

With one swift motion Emmett swoops his big arms down and lifts Rosalie up into the window. She perches there for a second and then disappears through the opening just as another knock rings through the suite.

_knock knock knock_

"Mr. Masen, I am a professor at this school and I'm requesting entry to you room. You will open up _now_."

"Ha, it's Alec!" Jasper says with a laugh as he gestures towards the door.

Of course this is a big game to him.

The rest of us are kind of panicking, but the look that Jasper and Emmett share is not one of worry, but almost of victory. I guess now that we have an escape plan Emmett is entertained by the idea of escaping Alec's grasp.

Emmett and Carlisle both assist Esme into the window next. Carlisle pushes his top half out of it as she disappears and drops down, and only when a soft thud is heard does he pull himself back in and look back towards the rest of us. All this time Alec is knocking on the door and deminding that Edward open up. The knocks give a rhythm to the rush in our movements, making this whole proceedure more exhilarating.

"We should go next, bro. The three of us," Emmett says to Edward, motioning between the two of them and Carlisle. "He and I were possibly seen with the ladies and they obviously know we're in you're room. The rest of them could talk themselves out of it, but we need to get out of here before they barge in and find proof."

Carlisle nods and Edward turns to me. I motion for him to go, to take the advice.

_knock knock knock_

"I am not messing around. This door will be opened one way or another!"

The door starts rattling frantically as Emmett jumps out the window, followed immediately by Carlisle.

Edward hops up into it and gives me a smirk and a wink before jumping out himself. I'm certain that the scotch is still effecting him because normal Edward would probably have an aneurism about this. He's an upstanding student and a very good man, even if he is dark and alone. But this trouble... this is sort of fun, I have to admit even as a good kid myself.

It feels dangerous and fast and exciting. The Azuretha has made me feel more alive and Edward's wink makes me feel invincible.

He disappears through the window just as the door stops rattling.

Jasper, Alice and I all look back at it, momentarily confused by the silence.

Then there's one large _POUND_ on the door and it shakes one great big time. Any more of those sorts of hits and it will buckle for sure.

That's all we need to push us to get a move on, even though our pause had only been for a second or two.

Alice jumps on Jasper's back and he motions for me to go first. I climb up into the window sill. The ground is sot too far down (since we are on the first floor) but it's definitely farther than is comfortable because the stone walls of the Tower High are all grand. The rest of the group is huddled around, close to the wall. Emmett and Rosalie are standing together holding hands. He is bouncing on the balls of his feet and tapping his free hand against his thigh. Carlisle and Esme seem a bit calmer, less tense than the other couple, but that's just their nature. I can see in my friend Carlisle's eyes that he's apprehensive. It makes him look a little wilder, which is sort of refreshing since he's always so refined.

In front of all of them, closer to the window, is Edward. He's anxiously gazing up and me and as soon as our eyes meet he smiles wickedly and nods his head down towards the ground.

I jump. And for one second it feels a little bit like flying, like freedom. In the back of my awareness I hear Alec yelling once again through the door. But all I can see is Edward and all I can feel is air, and we can't get caught - it would be horrible for all of us - but this is actually exciting and I'm not upset it's happening.

I hit the ground awkwardly. My legs give out, they hit at an angle. I drop and turn and my butt hits the ground first and hard.

"Ow..." I whine, because it hurt a lot.

Edward's face comes into my line of sight, very close, and he's concerned but he's still fighting a laugh, I can tell.

"I'm going to have to dock points for your landing, I'm afraid," he murmurs as my face breaks into a smile despite the pain shooting through my backside.

"Hush."

Jasper and Alice are already on the ground as Carlisle reaches out a hand to help me up. Edward's eyes turn dark for a moment and I see that his hands are in fists at his side. Simple acts of connection and kindness will always remind us of what we cannot do for eachother because of his stipulation, but we don't have time for that sadness now.

The largest _POUND_ of them all coming from the open space just above our heads pulls all of our attentions to the window. A _CRASH_ comes next and before I know it we're all running running running through the night.

Since the window was facing the forest we're hidden by trees in a matter of moments. I don't hear Alec or anyone else calling or coming after us, so I assume that we've escaped unnoticed.

We stop and huddle in a small clearing underneath some giant trees. It's dark. Really, really dark. Jasper pulls a lighter out as Alice slips off his back and stands beside him.

We are all breathing hard. Rose and Emmett are still holding hands. Carlisle's hand is on Esme's back while hers is at her chest. Edward and I are staring at each other.

And for some reason we're all smiling.

And then we're laughing.

"Hold on, hold on," Emmett chokes out between his quieted guffaws. "Let Eddie take a listen before we let our guards down."

I'm not sure why we're all so giddy, but laughter only gets harder as we try to supress it. It's one of the best feelings in the world, I note, holding in laughter. Jasper wraps an arm around Alice and then one around me and we both turn our faces into his shoulders to quiet our chuckles.

"I don't hear anyone," Edward announces after a few moments pass.

"That was close," Rosalie comments.

"Ok, so what do we do now?" Alice sighs.

"Well, we were going to go for a drive," Emmett says with a shrug. "We can still make it to the car."

"This late?" I ask. It must be at least midnight by now. And where did they get a car from?

"The night is young people! Let's go. It'll be fun. I bet Alice here has never been in a car before."

"At least not with the top down," Rosalie smiles saucily as Alice squeals and shakes her head confirming that she hasn't ever been in a car, especially not one with it's top down.

We start walking through the forest and I just follow the group, trusting that Emmett and Rosalie are leading us along a path they know. I do not know where I am at all. It's hard to worry, though, because the company is so good and the night feels so open.

"How did this all come about, by the way," Jasper asks.

"I'm not ratting myself out to a professor," Emmett teases. Jasper smacks the back of his head and everyone laughs.

"Rosalie snagged us a car from town and we wanted to try it out," he begins to explain as he shrugs his big shoulders. "We wanted to have a little fun before we left but we can't use the cabin this weekend-"

"Our great aunt is visiting," Esme interjects. "That's why we didn't plan a List meeting. There's nowhere for us to safely commune."

"So you guys decided to drink in your dorm room?" Edward skeptically asks Emmett.

"Don't give me that look, buddy. I didn't have anything to drink since I'll be the designated chauffer, and it was about more than intoxication. I'll make a way to see Rosie anytime I can. Rules be damned. Don't tell me you wouldn't do the same."

I get a bashful look from Edward. Then a remorseful one. Then a breath-taking one.

"All right. I see your point."

"Anyway, we know Aro is away this week so we didn't think it'd be too big of a deal. But of course that snake Alec was snooping around. I swear to the Tower, that guy has nothing better to do but try to get me in trouble. You think he'd be more open to other Shields having success around here."

"Hardly," Jasper snorts. "That guy is the worst. He needs to chill, majorly. He can't, though. He's too paranoid about getting replaced."

"I feel bad, actually. He'll probably have it all for all of you now. Once he confirms that we are all friends... ugh. I'm just sorry."

"Em, it's not your fault that he's a prick that can't stand your talent," Rosalie defends, sounding truly disgusted.

"I still cannot believe we snuck the girls into the school," Carlisle breathes with a sigh. "I've never done anything so... wrong before."

Again we laugh as Esme ruffles his hair. He's cute with his supreme goodness.

"It's all a part of life!" Jasper cheers. "We need a moral compass on The List, hence Cullen here, but if the prophecies are right then we'll all need to be willing to bend the rules, too."

"One of the prophecies fortells all of you as 'the most well-known rebels in history'. Meaning, all of history. From before now and after now," Esme adds in. Reverence is clear in her voice and a serious calm settles over the group. "You guys are going to do things that go against, well, everything."

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we are the people that have been prohpecised about for ages. When The List first formed it felt huge and heavy. But in the past few weeks things have been quiet. Aro hasn't even taken his place as our leader yet.

It's just easy to forget what's ahead of us, considering we don't have many clues about it anyway.

For a few paces everyone is silent. The mood isn't somber, but it's sobered some. We are all in our heads working out what it means to be someone that the entire Tower World will know about and will look towards in the time coming upon us.

We arrive at a clearing after a short time and there's a road directly in front of us. A rather large, rather white car is sitting in the shoulder of the deserted road. It looks like a big cadillac convertible and it's top is already down.

Jasper whistles lowly in appreciation as we all approach the vehicle. Alice claps and squeals again as she runs up to run her hands across the smooth metal along the door.

"You outdid yourself, babe," Emmett chuckles as he kisses Rosalie on the cheek.

"I know how to get what I want."

She saunters over to the passenger side of the car as Emmett bounds around to the driver's side, swinging his keys around his finger. The both hop over the doors and into the front seats. Rosalie turns her head and motions towards the rest of us.

"Come on ladies, don't by shy. I didn't snag this beauty for only the boys to drool over."

I'm taken back by Rose's casual way of dealing with us, but I'm also not going to complain. She hasn't been this at ease around the group ever. But tonight she's all smiles and hair tossing and confidence over the car.

Alice jumps in the front with Emmett and Rose, right in between them. The back seat is big enough for the rest of us if we sit on the sides and the back of the car. With the top down this is the ideal way to sit anyway, and the seats become feet rests without hesitation. I grip the back of the car and look to my left towards Edward. He's taken the left side of the car, in the corner, furthest from where the rest of us are squished along the back. Jasper is pushed to my side on my right with Esme half on Carlisle's lap to his right. It's cramped but nothing about me cares about my side being pressed into Jasper's because there's a breeze and it forces me to turn more towards Edward.

"Come on Rebels, let's ride!"

The only thing I can concentrate on as Emmett starts the car and takes us cruising down the country road is Edward's foot.

Edward's shoe covered foot who's tip is just touching the edge of mine. The rubber soles are not skin, so we can have this tiny connection for this nght, for this drive.

My hair whips around my face as I smile at him. I don't feel the heat in the air or the worry of being caught doing something so against school rules. I've never been this surrounded by fresh air, or happiness, or friendship.

I only feel free once again, a thousand times more than when I jumped from the window. With the amazing, daunting things ahead of us I know it's good to soak up these moments and tuck them away forever, to draw on when times will inevitably get tough.

Someday, perhaps soon, we will take our place as Rebels. We will stand united, as The List, as the phrophecised great leaders of a revolution to save our world.

But tonight we are just eight friends in a borrowed luxury car, rolling down a night highway singing classic rock songs at the top of our lungs.

Tonight we aren't Remarkable, our time together is.

**Chapter 9 - Part 2**

It's the eyes, Reader. Look in the eyes.

That's where the trouble lies.

It's the eyes in the darkness we must take note of.

Tonight our Characters have fallen and freed themselves. While it's all for good, some must be reserved for strife.

For this one pair of eyes watching the white car drive into the night are not of a friendly gaze.

They are connected to a dark shadow that moves through the forest with a hidden purpose, not yet to be revealed. A shadow of a man that would love nothing more than to destruct the Rebel's cause.

* * *

**Remember: This is a fantasy from the workings of my imagination. Forgive me if it's hard to take a hold of. I cannot say I'm not enjoying creating this world, though. :)**

**LOVE YOUS!**

**Send me know your thoughts, if you would be so kind.**

**-Car**


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